An agonist whose efficacy produces less than the maximum response of a higher-efficacy agonist under specified conditions. High receptor reserve can conceal partial efficacy.

The ability of a bound ligand to promote receptor activation. Its estimation must account for receptor abundance and downstream amplification.

Duplicated or distorted surface features arising when more than one effective apex contributes to the measured envelope. Attachment or loss of a particle can change the image abruptly without changing the sample.

A compliant beam whose deflection senses tip–sample force in atomic force microscopy. In its calibrated linear range, normal force is $F=k_c{\delta }_c$.

Increasing cloud droplet number at fixed liquid-water content and cloud thickness reduces mean droplet size and increases total extinction area, raising shortwave optical depth and cloud albedo. This idealized response produces negative shortwave radiative forcing. Changes in cloud amount, water content and dynamics are separate adjustments.^[ref]

Cloud changes caused by aerosol absorption of radiation and the resulting heating. Heating can evaporate clouds and reduce shortwave reflection, but the effect can reverse when heating changes stability and cloud maintenance differently. The forcing sign depends on the relative positions of cloud and absorbing aerosol and on dynamical adjustment.

Expanding a quantum state in instantaneous energy eigenstates separates dynamical phases from the coupling $A_{mn}$. orthonormality makes $A$ anti-Hermitian. For distinct eigenvalues, differentiating the eigenvalue equation gives $A_{mn}=⟨m|\dot{H}|n⟩/(E_n-E_m)$. Its off-diagonal entries drive nonadiabatic transitions; diagonal entries describe phase changes of the basis and generate the Berry phase.

A protein tag enabling regulated degradation of a fusion protein. It can sharpen perturbation timing, but the tagged protein and induction treatment require independent function controls.

Binding that reduces the pool of actin monomers available for productive actin filament assembly. Existing actin filaments can then disappear through ordinary turnover; their loss does not establish direct severing.

Assembly of actin subunits into actin filaments. An unseeded bulk reaction can show a actin nucleation lag, a growth phase and an approximately constant final polymer mass; equal endpoints need not imply equal kinetics.

Loss of subunits from actin filaments. Blocking replacement from soluble actin monomers can cause net actin filament loss without direct drug binding to the actin filament.

Replacement and redistribution of subunits through assembly and disassembly. A persistent structure can be highly dynamic even when its appearance is stable.

A localized actin assembly in budding yeast, commonly associated with endocytosis. The lifetime of a visible patch and the lifetime of an individual constituent actin filament are different measurements.

A bundle of actin filaments that can support directed intracellular transport. Absence of a visible cable does not exclude sparse short actin filaments below an imaging threshold.