* backing collection and the mutex are serializable.
 *
 * <p>If {@code null} is passed as the {@code mutex} parameter to any of this class's top-level
 * methods or inner class constructors, the created object uses itself as the synchronization mutex.
 *
 * <p>This class should be used by other collection classes only.
 *
 * @author Mike Bostock
 * @author Jared Levy
 */