A semigroup is \emph{amiable} if there is exactly one idempotent in each
$\mathcal{R}^*$-class and in each $\mathcal{L}^*$-class. A semigroup is
\emph{adequate} if it is amiable and if its idempotents commute. We
characterize adequate semigroups by showing that they are precisely those
amiable semigroups which do not contain isomorphic copies of two particular
nonadequate semigroups as subsemigroups.
It is well known that in every inverse semigroup the binary operation and the
unary operation of inversion satisfy the following three identities: \[ \quad
x=(xx')x \qquad \quad (xx')(y'y)=(y'y)(xx') \qquad \quad (xy)z=x(yz'')\,. \]
The goal of this note is to prove the converse, that is, we prove that every
unary semigroup satisfying these three identities is an inverse semigroup and
the unary operation coincides with the usual inversion on such semigroups.
Let $a$ be a non-invertible transformation of a finite set and let $G$ be a
group of permutations on that same set. Then $\genset{G, a}\setminus G$ is a
subsemigroup, consisting of all non-invertible transformations, in the
semigroup generated by $G$ and $a$. Likewise, the conjugates $a^g=g^{-1}ag$ of
$a$ by elements $g\in G$ generate a semigroup denoted $\genset{a^g | g\in G}$.
We classify the finite permutation groups $G$ on a finite set $X$ such that the
semigroups $\genset{G,a}$, $\genset{G, a}\setminus G$, and $\genset{a^g | g\in
G}$ are regular for all transformations of $X$.