A couple ($\sigma ,\tau$) of lower and upper slopes for the resonant second order boundary value problem $$x^{\text{'}\text{'}}=f(t,x,x^{\text{'}}),x\left(0\right)=0,x^{\text{'}}\left(1\right)={\int }_0^1{x}^{\text{'}}\left(s\right)\mathrm{d}g\left(s\right),$$ with $g$ increasing on $[0,1]$ such that ${\int }_0^{1}dg=1$, is a couple of functions $\sigma ,\tau \in C^1\left([0,1]\right)$ such that $\sigma \left(t\right)\le \tau \left(t\right)$ for all $t\in [0,1]$, $$\begin{array}{c}{\sigma }^{\text{'}}\left(t\right)\ge f(t,x,\sigma \left(t\right)),\sigma \left(1\right)\le {\int }_0^1\sigma \left(s\right)\mathrm{d}g\left(s\right),\\ {\tau }^{\text{'}}\left(t\right)\le f(t,x,\tau \left(t\right)),\tau \left(1\right)\ge {\int }_0^1\tau \left(s\right)\mathrm{d}g\left(s\right),\end{array}$$ in the stripe ${\int }_0^t\sigma \left(s\right)\mathrm{d}s\le x\le {\int }_0^t\tau \left(s\right)\mathrm{d}s$ and $t\in [0,1]$. It is proved that the existence of such a couple $(\sigma ,\tau )$ implies the existence and localization of a solution to the boundary value problem. Multiplicity results are also obtained.

We show the location of so called critical points, i.e., couples of diffusion coefficients for which a non-trivial solution of a linear reaction-diffusion system of activator-inhibitor type on an interval with Neumann boundary conditions and with additional non-linear unilateral condition at one or two points on the boundary and/or in the interior exists. Simultaneously, we show the profile of such solutions.