sensitivity

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A property of a system, or part of a system, that indicates how the system reacts to stimuli. The stimuli can be external (that is, an input signal) or a change in an element in the system. Thus, sensitivity can be interpreted as a measure of the variation in some behavior characteristic of the system that is caused by some change in the original value of one or more of the elements of the system.

Sensitivity is commonly used as a figure of merit for characterizing system performance. As a figure of merit, the sensitivity is a numerical indicator of system performance that is useful for predicting system performance in the presence of elemental variations or comparing the relative performance of two or more systems that ideally have the same performance. In the latter case, the performance of the systems relative to some parameter of interest is rank-ordered by the numerical value of the corresponding sensitivity functions. If T is the performance characteristic and X is the element or a specified input level, then mathematically sensitivity is expressed as a normalized derivative of T with respect to X.

A limiting factor in using the sensitivity of a system to characterize performance at low signal levels is the noise. Noise is a statistical description of a random process inherent in all elements in a physical system. The noise is related to the minimum signal that can be processed in a system as a function of physical variables such as pressure, visual brightness, audible tones, and temperature. See also Electrical noise.

There exist many situations where the sensitivity measure indicates the ability of a system to meet certain design specifications. For example, in an electronic system the sensitivity of the output current with respect to the variation of the power-supply voltage can be very critical. In that case, a system with a minimum sensitivity of the output current with respect to the power-supply voltage must be designed. Another example is a high-fidelity audio amplifier whose sensitivity can be interpreted as the capacity of the amplifier to detect the minimum amplifiable signal.

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noun

1. The capacity for or an act of responding to a stimulus: feeling, sensation, sense, sensibility, sensitiveness, sentiment. See awareness/unawareness.
2. The quality or condition of being emotionally and intuitively sensitive: feeling, sensibility, sensitiveness. See awareness/unawareness.

n

Definition: responsiveness to stimuli
Antonyms: apathy, impassivity, imperviousness, insensitivity, numbness

1. The aspect of a measurement dealing with the possibility of detecting changes in a dependent measure in relation to varying experimental conditions. See also objectivity, reliability, validity.

2. The ability to respond to stimuli. The term is used especially for the ability to be affected by and to respond to stimuli of low intensity.

The magnitude of a financial instrument's reaction to changes in underlying factors. Financial instruments, such as stocks and bonds, are constantly impacted by many factors. Sensitivity accounts for all factors that impact a given instrument in a negative or positive way in an attempt to learn how much a certain factor will impact the value of a particular instrument.

Investopedia Says:
Interest rates are one of the most important underlying factors in the movement of bond prices and are closely watched by bond investors. These investors get a better idea of how their bonds will be affected by interest rate movements by incorporating sensitivity into their analyses.

Related Links:
By understanding the factors that influence interest rates, you can learn to anticipate their movement and profit from it. Interest Rates And Your Bond Investments
Get a deeper understanding of the importance of interest rates and what makes them change. Forces Behind Interest Rates
Offering both income and relative security, these uncommon shares may work for you. A Primer On Preferred Stocks
This technique can reduce uncertainty in estimating future outcomes. Bet Smarter With The Monte Carlo Simulation

Quotes:

"It is... axiomatic that we should all think of ourselves as being more sensitive than other people because, when we are insensitive in our dealings with others, we cannot be aware of it at the time: conscious insensitivity is a self-contradiction." - W. H. Auden

"If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the best of us walk about well wadded with stupidity." - George Eliot

"It is all a question of sensitiveness. Brute force and overbearing may make a terrific effect. But in the end, that which lives by delicate sensitiveness. If it were a question of brute force, not a single human baby would survive for a fortnight. It is the grass of the field, most frail of all things, that supports all life all the time. But for the green grass, no empire would rise, no man would eat bread: for grain is grass; and Hercules or Napoleon or Henry Ford would alike be denied existence." - D. H. Lawrence

"One of the effects of a safe and civilized life is an immense oversensitiveness which makes all the primary emotions somewhat disgusting. Generosity is as painful as meanness, gratitude as hateful as ingratitude." - George Orwell

"How frail the human heart must be --a mirrored pool of thought..." - Sylvia Plath

"What we think of as our sensitivity is only the higher evolution of terror in a poor dumb beast. We suffer for nothing. Our own death wish is our only real tragedy." - Mario Puzo

See more famous quotes about Sensitivity

1. an index of the ability of any analytical method or other detection procedure to make quantitative determinations at very low levels.
2. (in metabolic control theory) the susceptibility of flux through a pathway to change in response to change in the level of one of the component enzymes, expressed quantitatively in terms of the flux control coefficient. An alternative meaning arises when an allosteric ligand acts at several points in a pathway, where a plot of the fractional modification in flux versus ligand concentration yields a sigmoidal curve for a positive effector; the sensitivity in this case can be derived from the slope of the sigmoidal curve.
3. (in informatics) an alternative name for recall.

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The state or quality of being sensitive.

• antibiotic s., antimicrobial s. — the degree of susceptibility of a bacterial isolate to individual antibiotics. Measured by growth in liquid culture media with serial dilutions of the antimicrobial, or on agar plates as measured by the width of the zone of growth inhibition around a special disk impregnated with the antimicrobial.
• bacterial s. — see antibiotic sensitivity (above).
• contact s. — see contact hypersensitivity.
• diagnostic test s. — the probability that a test will correctly identify the patients which are infected or have a specified non-infectious condition. A fundamental parameter for all diagnostic tests. A sensitive test will pick up the minutest quantity of antibody or other agent in a biological fluid. There are times when this is a desirable characteristic but the loss of specificity that usually accompanies the high sensitivity, needs to be taken into account. See also specificity.
• radioimmunoassay s. — the smallest amount of hormone which the assay can accurately detect above a zero amount.

n

1. the ability to feel or experience physical stimuli. 2. compassion or thoughtfulness toward a person or situation.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - følsomhed, modtagelighed, sensitivitet, nærtagenhed, ømfindtlighed

Nederlands (Dutch)
gevoeligheid, fijnzinnigheid, medeleven, opmerkzaamheid

Français (French)
n. - sensibilité, sensitivité, susceptibilité, (Phot) impressionnabilité, caractère délicat/confidentiel

Deutsch (German)
n. - Empfindlichkeit, Sensibilität

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ευαισθησία, αισθαντικότητα, ευπάθεια

Italiano (Italian)
sensibilità, delicatezza, suscettibilità

Português (Portuguese)
n. - sensibilidade (f)

Русский (Russian)
чувствительность, восприимчивость, впечатлительность

Español (Spanish)
n. - sensibilidad, tiento, tacto, sutileza, fineza, susceptibilidad

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - känslighet, sensibilitet, mottaglighet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
敏感, 灵敏性, 灵敏

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 敏感, 靈敏性, 靈敏

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 감수성, (자극에 대한) 감도, 동정

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 感じやすさ, 感性, 感受性, 感度, 感光度

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) حساسيه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רגישות, עדינות‬

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