Positive solutions for semipositone \((k,n-k)\) boundary value problems (Q1860683)

The authors establish the existence of a positive solution to the \((k,n-k)\) conjugate boundary value problem \[ (-1)^{n-k} u^{(n)}=\lambda f(t,u),\quad 0<t<1, \] \[ u^{(i)}(0)=0,\quad 0\leq i\leq k-1,\qquad u^{(j)}(1)=0,\quad 0\leq j\leq n-k-1. \] For this, they use a fixed-point theorem in cones (due to Krasnosel'skij). Related results can be found in [\textit{R. Ma}, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 252, 220-229 (2000; Zbl 0979.34012)] and in [\textit{R. P. Agarwal, D. O'Regan} ana \textit{V. Lakshmikantham}, Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 43, 61-71 (2001; Zbl 0969.34021)].