Kakugawa et aL proposed the k-majority coterie for the distributed k-mutual exclusion problem (k-mutex). It was claimed that the k-majority coterie is a k-coterie, which is a general solution for k-mutex. In this comment, we show that the k-majority coterie is not necessary a k-coterie.

When evaluating the inclusion-exclusion expansion N0 −N(1) −N(2) − · · ·+N(1, 2) +N(1, 3) + · · · many of the terms N(· · ·) may turn out to be zero, and hence should be discarded beforehand. Often this can be done.

In [14], Lamport has defined three classes of shared registers which support read and write operations, called —safe, regular and atomic—depending on their properties when several reads and/or writes are executed concurrently. We consider generalizations of Lamport’s notions, called k-safe, k-regular and k-atomic. First, we provide constructions for implementing 1-atomic registers (the stronges...

iii PREFACE Process Synchronization is the set of techniques that are used to coordinate execution amongst processes. A common resource such as shared memory or a device may require exclusive access. In a multitasked/multithreaded system, processes have to coordinate amongst themselves to ensure that access is exclusive and fair. The mutual exclusion problem is one of the problems in inter-proc...

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for stochastically bounded coexistence in a class of models for two species competing in a randomly varying environment. Coexistence is implied by mutual invasibility, as conjectured by Turelli. In the absence of invasibility, a species converges to extinction with large probability if its initial population is small, and extinction of one species mus...