The property of external positivity of dynamic systems is commonly defined as the non-negativity of the output for all time under zero initial conditions and any given non-negative input for all time. This paper investigates the extension of that property for a structured class of initial conditions of a single-input single-output (SISO) linear dynamic system which can include, in general, certain negative initial conditions. The above class of initial conditions is characterized analytically

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... sed on the structure of the transfer function. The basic study is performed in the delay-free case, but extensions are then given for systems subject to a finite number of internal and external, in general incommensurate, point delays and for the closed-loop dynamic systems which incorporate a feedback compensator. The formulation relies on calculating the output based on the impulse responses by considering the relation of the mentioned sets of structured initial conditions with the zero-state response which allows to keep the non-negativity of the zero-input response and that of the total response provided the non-negativity for all time of the zero-state response.