“…For α = 1 the problem is called singular with a singularity of the first kind; for α > 1 it is essentially singular (singularity of the second kind). The search for efficient numerical methods to solve (1a) is strongly motivated by numerous applications from physics [9,10,23,42], chemistry [13,39,41], mechanics [12], ecology [30,37], or economics [14,15,24]. Also, research activities in related fields, such as the computation of connecting orbits in dynamical systems [38], or singular Sturm-Liouville problems [6], benefit from techniques developed for problems of the form (1a).…”