Qualitative comparison of the nonoscillatory behavior of the equations $$L_{n}y\left(t\right)+H(t,y\left(t\right))=0$$ and $$L_{n}y\left(t\right)+H(t,y\left(g\left(t\right)\right))=0$$ is sought by way of finding different nonoscillation criteria for the above equations. $L_n$ is a disconjugate operator of the form $$L_n=\frac{1}{p_n\left(t\right)}\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}\frac{1}{p_{n-1}\left(t\right)}\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}...\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}\frac{·}{p_0\left(t\right)}.$$ Both canonical and noncanonical forms of $L_n$ have been studied.

We obtain conditions for existence and (almost) non-oscillation of solutions of a second order linear homogeneous functional differential equations $$u^{\text{'}\text{'}}\left(x\right)+\sum _i{p}_i\left(x\right)u^{\text{'}}\left(h_i\left(x\right)\right)+\sum _i{q}_i\left(x\right)u\left(g_i\left(x\right)\right)=0$$ without the delay conditions $h_i\left(x\right),g_i\left(x\right)\le x$, $i=1,2,...$, and $$u^{\text{'}\text{'}}\left(x\right)+{\int }_0^{\infty }{u}^{\text{'}}\left(s\right){\mathrm{d}}_s{r}_1(x,s)+{\int }_0^{\infty }u\left(s\right){\mathrm{d}}_s{r}_0(x,s)=0.$$

In this paper we are concerned with the oscillation of third order nonlinear delay differential equations of the form $${\left(r_2\left(t\right){\left(r_1\left(t\right)x^{\text{'}}\right)}^{\text{'}}\right)}^{\text{'}}+p\left(t\right)x^{\text{'}}+q\left(t\right)f\left(x\left(g\left(t\right)\right)\right)=0.$$ We establish some new sufficient conditions which insure that every solution of this equation either oscillates or converges to zero.

We study oscillatory properties of solutions of the systems of differential equations of neutral type.

Sufficient conditions are obtained so that every solution of ${[y\left(t\right)-p\left(t\right)y(t-\tau )]}^{\left(n\right)}+Q\left(t\right)G\left(y(t-\sigma )\right)=f\left(t\right)$ where n ≥ 2, p,f ∈ C([0,∞),ℝ), Q ∈ C([0,∞),[0,∞)), G ∈ C(ℝ,ℝ), τ > 0 and σ ≥ 0, oscillates or tends to zero as $t\to \infty$. Various ranges of p(t) are considered. In order to accommodate sublinear cases, it is assumed that ${\int }_0^{\infty }Q\left(t\right)dt=\infty$. Through examples it is shown that if the condition on Q is weakened, then there are sublinear equations whose solutions tend to ±∞ as t → ∞.

In this paper, necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for every bounded solution of $${[y\left(t\right)-p\left(t\right)y(t-\tau )]}^{\left(n\right)}+Q\left(t\right)G\left(y(t-\sigma )\right)=f\left(t\right),t\ge 0,(*)$$ to oscillate or tend to zero as $t\to \infty$ for different ranges of $p\left(t\right)$. It is shown, under some stronger conditions, that every solution of $(*)$ oscillates or tends to zero as $t\to \infty$. Our results hold for linear, a class of superlinear and other nonlinear equations and answer a conjecture by Ladas and Sficas, Austral. Math. Soc. Ser. B 27 (1986), 502–511, and generalize some known results.