The asymptotic properties of solutions of the equation $u^{\text{'}\text{'}\text{'}}\left(t\right)=p_1\left(t\right)u\left({\tau }_1\left(t\right)\right)+p_2\left(t\right)u^{\text{'}}\left({\tau }_2\left(t\right)\right)$, are investigated where $p_i:[a,+\infty [\to R(i=1,2)$ are locally summable functions, ${\tau }_i:[a,+\infty [\to R(i=1,2)$ measurable ones and ${\tau }_i\left(t\right)\ge t(i=1,2)$. In particular, it is proved that if $p_1\left(t\right)\le 0$, $p_2^2\left(t\right)\le \alpha \left(t\right)\left|p_1\left(t\right)\right|$, $${\int }_a^{+\infty }{[{\tau }_1\left(t\right)-t]}^2{p}_1\left(t\right)dt<+\infty \text{and}{\int }_a^{+\infty }\alpha \left(t\right)dt<+\infty ,$$ then each solution with the first derivative vanishing at infinity is of the Kneser type and a set of all such solutions forms a one-dimensional linear space.

We study the existence of positive solutions of the integral equation $$x\left(t\right)=\mu {\int }_0^{1}k(t,s)f(s,x\left(s\right),x^{\text{'}}\left(s\right),...,x^{(n-1)}\left(s\right))ds,n\ge 2$$ in both $C^{n-1}[0,1]$ and $W^{n-1,p}[0,1]$ spaces, where $p\ge 1$ and $\mu >0$. Throughout this paper $k$ is nonnegative but the nonlinearity $f$ may take negative values. The Krasnosielski fixed point theorem on cone is used.