Abstract
This is the first of two Special Issues of Nonlinearity. The six peer-reviewed articles in this issue and the five in the next are based upon presentations made by their authors at the International BELLE Conference on Non-Linear Dose-Response Relationships in Biology, Toxicology and Medicine, held May 28-30, 2003 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. The conference theme was Scientific Foundations, Implications for Pharmaceuticals and Environmental Risk Assessment and consisted of over 30 presentations and a poster session. Major topics in the seven sessions focused on aspects of low level radiation, chemical carcinogenesis, clinical implications of bi-phasic dose responses, high profile toxic substances and their non-linear relationships and regulatory implications.
Abstract
The Samueli Institute, one of the sponsors of the Non-Linearity conference, also supported the publication of these two Special Issues for which Wayne B. Jonas and John A. Ives of the Samueli Institute, serve as Guest Editors. The issues were compiled by inviting presenters at the conference to submit papers for peer-review. All papers were reviewed by at least two peer reviewers, and decisions regarding the publication of the revised manuscripts were based on the final recommendations of the reviewers.
Abstract
For this first Special Issue we invited submissions from researchers with a focus on carcinogenesis or with a focus on risk assessment employing nonlinear assumptions. Bukowski and Lewis attempt the reconciliation of the threshold-no threshold risk assessment controversy. Waddell evaluates log scales for dose as a way to evaluate low dose effects and thresholds. Oesch, Hengstler, and Arand, using the two-step enzymatic reaction of expoxide hydrolase, illustrate a practical threshold for this genotoxic compound. On the other hand, van Wijngaarden, Mundt, and Luippold fail to find a threshold for the carcinogenicity of hexavalent chromium using published epidemiological data. Kodell and Turturro present a commentary on the risk assessment significance of a model for fumonisin B 1 . We close with a paper by Pentreath and Mead describing a bi-phasic response by astrocytes to Alzheimer's implicated amyloid β-peptide.
Abstract
A future Special Issue will look at non-linear responses model systems for scleroderma, inhalation experiments, aging in human cells, along with the interaction of metalothionein and diabetes, and the dose response of plant peroxidase activity to simple phenolics.

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