How big is human memory, or on being just useful enough.

Size matters: just how big is BIG?

BACKGROUND Despite earlier doubts, a string of recent successes indicates that if sample sizes are large enough, it is possible-both in theory and in practice-to identify and replicate genetic associations with common complex diseases. But human genome epidemiology is expensive and, from a strategic perspective, it is still unclear what 'large enough' really means. This question has critical im...

Simulating Large Networks { How Big is Big Enough?

Simulation has become the evaluation method of choice for many areas of computer networking research. However, most existing network simulation packages have severe limitations on the size and complexity of the network being modeled. Simulated networks of just a few thousand network elements and a few thousand data ows will quickly exhaust the computing resources in any reasonably sized compute...

How big is big enough? Thinking about contralateral prophylactic mastectomy.

When evaluating the benefit of a therapy, we must consider the effects of uncertainty and the magnitude of the gain or loss, having decided on a metric for outcome differences. With two alternatives (A and B) under consideration, there are three possible conclusions: Option A is substantially better; option B is substantially better; and the options are more or less equal—that is, the decision ...

Just How Big Is Global Production Sharing?

The sharing of different stages of manufacturing processes between countries is of major and growing importance. However, due to previous deficiencies in the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Revision 1 system it was not possible to differentiate between two key elements of this process that involving international trade in components and parts as opposed to the exchange of ful...

Counterpoint: just being alive is not good enough.