Nonnegative solutions of singular boundary value problems with sign changing nonlinearities

The paper presents sufficient conditions for the existence of positive solutions of the equation x″(t) + q(t)f(t,x(t),x′(t)) = 0 with the Dirichlet conditions x(0) = 0, x(1) = 0 and of the equation (p(t)x′(t))′ + p(t)q(t)f(t,x(t),p(t)x′(t)) = 0 with the boundary conditions limt→o+ p(t)x′(t) = 0, x(1) = 0. Our nonlinearity f is allowed to change sign and f may be singular at x = 0. The proofs are based on a combination of the regularity and sequential techniques and the method of lower and upper functions.