The half-linear differential equation $$\left(\right|u^{\text{'}}{|}^{\alpha }\mathrm{sgn}{u}^{\text{'}}{)}^{\text{'}}=\alpha ({\lambda }^{\alpha +1}+b\left(t\right)){\left|u\right|}^{\alpha }\mathrm{sgn}u,t\ge t_0,$$ is considered, where $\alpha$ and $\lambda$ are positive constants and $b\left(t\right)$ is a real-valued continuous function on $[t_0,\infty )$. It is proved that, under a mild integral smallness condition of $b\left(t\right)$ which is weaker than the absolutely integrable condition of $b\left(t\right)$, the above equation has a nonoscillatory solution $u_0\left(t\right)$ such that $u_0\left(t\right)\sim {\mathrm{e}}^{-\lambda t}$ and $u_0^{\text{'}}\left(t\right)\sim -\lambda {\mathrm{e}}^{-\lambda t}$ ($t\to \infty$), and a nonoscillatory solution $u_1\left(t\right)$ such that $u_1\left(t\right)\sim {\mathrm{e}}^{\lambda t}$ and $u_1^{\text{'}}\left(t\right)\sim \lambda {\mathrm{e}}^{\lambda t}$ ($t\to \infty$).

It is shown that the uniform exponential stability and the uniform stability at permanently acting disturbances of a sufficiently smooth but not necessarily steady-state solution of a general variational inequality is a consequence of the uniform exponential stability of a zero solution of another (so called linearized) variational inequality.

The following problem of Markus and Yamabe is answered affirmatively: Let f be a local diffeomorphism of the euclidean plane whose jacobian matrix has negative trace everywhere. If f(0) = 0, is it true that 0 is a global attractor of the ODE dx/dt = f(x)? An old result of Olech states that this is equivalent to the question if such an f is injective. Here the problem is treated in the latter form by means of an investigation of the behaviour of f near infinity.

The asymptotic behaviour of a Sturm-Liouville differential equation with coefficient ${\lambda }^{2}q\left(s\right),s\in [s_0,\infty )$ is investigated, where $\lambda \in ℝ$ and $q\left(s\right)$ is a nondecreasing step function tending to $\infty$ as $s\to \infty$. Let $S$ denote the set of those $\lambda$’s for which the corresponding differential equation has a solution not tending to 0. It is proved that $S$ is an additive group. Four examples are given with $S=\left\{0\right\}$, $S=\mathbb{Z}$, $S=𝔻$ (i.e. the set of dyadic numbers), and $\mathbb{Q}\subset S⫋ℝ$.