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sensitivity In quantitative terms, the responsiveness of a physiological system to a stimulus, such as an allosteric effector, substrate or hormone. Where X is the magnitude of the stimulus and Y the magnitude of the response, sensitivity can be expressed as the dimensionless relative increase of Y PER relative increase in X, effectively the slope of a plot of logY against logX. Alternatively, sensitivity is expressed as the increase in Y PER increase in X, i.e. dY/dX, which has the dimensions of the dependent and independent variables. Crabtree, B. and Newsholme, E.A. (1985) Curr. Top. Cell. Regul. 25, 21-76

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