Real Gaps Research Articles

Are Optometrists Prepared to Be Involved in Post-Stroke Rehabilitation?

Stroke survivors often experience various visual consequences that impact their daily life and may benefit from visual interventions. However, some of these usually go unaddressed as optometrists are rarely included in the post-stroke care pathway. Yet, optometrists are interested in contributing to the care of these patients. This survey evaluated the readiness of optometrists in diagnosing and managing visual disorders specific to stroke survivors. A questionnaire was developed by the researchers, pilot tested by 5 research optometrists and 15 community optometrists, and modified based on the feedback. Practicing optometrists were invited to complete the anonymous online survey through optometric organizations in Canada, the US, Hong Kong, India, and the UK. Most respondents displayed strong knowledge, but 61.6% indicated that enhancing their knowledge would be helpful. The majority (87%) agreed that stroke is related to an increased incidence of falls. Participants' knowledge regarding the natural history of post-stroke visual disorders was poorer. There were also inconsistencies regarding what optometrists considered ideal interventions and what they undertook in practice. More than 50% of respondents reported that the quality of published evidence on post-stroke visual consequences was low or nonexistent. Overall, survey respondents displayed sufficient knowledge. However, there are areas of uncertainty in their knowledge, which in many cases correspond to real gaps in the available evidence. There is a need to identify and remediate these gaps to enable optometrists to deliver quality optometric care as collaborative members of the post-stroke professional team, which would eventually improve the rehabilitation of stroke survivors.

Difficult Terrains of Research Publications Faced by Researchers: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background The publication of scholarly work in peer-reviewed journals is a well-established method for disseminating knowledge and findings to a global audience. However, the publishing process is constantly evolving and encountering various obstacles that hinder progress. Despite a significant increase in the number of research projects undertaken, there are few studies evaluating the challenges faced by investigators in publishing their research. This study aims to identify the factors and elements that influence the publication process after the completion of research. Methods This study included 759 projects approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) from 2016 to 2021 at a tertiary care centre in South India. A list of these approved projects was analysed for overall output in terms of publication and completion. Investigators were contacted and interviewed using a validated, 15-question survey to identify various factors influencing scientific publications. Results A total of 759 projects approved by the IEC from 2016 to 2021 were analyzed. It was found that only 36.72% of studies were completed by faculty members, and the publication conversion rate was 34.24%. A single-point analysis showed a statistically significant lower conversion rate for resident articles (p = 0.032). The 15-point analysis detailed the factors influencing publication conversion, revealing that the majority of researchers publish based on academic and research interests (68.89% and 72.12%, respectively). Various deterrents to publication, such as study design, statistical analysis, journal selection, and knowledge about journal submission, were identified. Notably, 98.4% of researchers expressed a desire to publish more in the future, highlighting the importance of this study. Conclusion The study highlights areas that require attention to facilitate and augment research. It identifies the real gaps in the publication process and suggests points of intervention needed to enhance the research environment, increase publication rates, and establish demand-based research support units in the medical education sector.

Modeling and analysis of minor seal leakages in high-pressure hydrogen valves under extreme environmental temperatures

The damage to the sealing rings of high-pressure hydrogen valves caused by extreme environmental temperatures, leading to minor hydrogen leakage, is a significant issue in the field of hydrogen safety. However, current understanding is still limited regarding the initial leakage of hydrogen through damaged gaps in sealing rings. This paper aims to explore the distribution of hydrogen leakage in sealing rings with various-shaped damage gaps under extreme environmental temperatures. Firstly, the real damage gaps of the sealing rings are obtained on an extreme temperature experimental platform. Then, a coupled hydrogen leakage model is established, which calculates the viscosity of hydrogen in real-time as temperature changes. Based on these models, the concentration, temperature, and velocity distribution of hydrogen within the sealing ring gaps under extreme environmental temperatures are studied. The results indicate that the high-pressure hydrogen within the gaps, influenced by viscosity and wall adhesion effects, tends to diffuse along the wall surfaces. The high-temperature zone along the edge lines of the gaps lasts longer than that on the centerline. Under extreme high temperature conditions, the average velocity at the inlet and outlet of the gap is 21.6% higher than under extreme low temperatures.

The Nature of Gaps in Russian Legal Acts on Labor and Labor Law

The nature of gaps in Russian legal acts on labor and labor law is analyzed, the analysis of scientific points of view on the nature of gaps in labor law is carried out. The article criticizes scientific approaches based on legal positivism, as well as on the scientific and debatable concept of integrative legal understanding, in which the nature of gaps in labor law is traditionally revealed using the terms “labor legislation”, “labor law norms”, as well as social regulators of actual social relations and moral categories. The author’s conclusions and proposals are formulated from the position of the scientifically grounded concept of integrative legal understanding. In particular, it is concluded that the real gaps exist not in labor law, but in national legal acts in the field of labor. There is usually no gap in labor law if there are principles and norms of labor law applicable to the disputed legal situation contained in the unified system of forms of labor law implemented in the Russian Federation. The author’s proposals for changing certain norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation are formulated.

Cyclical Consumption, Real Interest Rate Deviations and Output Gaps in a Large Emerging Economy: Expected and Unexpected Responses under Different Regimes

Cyclical Consumption, Real Interest Rate Deviations and Output Gaps in a Large Emerging Economy: Expected and Unexpected Responses under Different Regimes

Optimising staff utilisation in companion animal veterinary practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Utilisation of all staff in companion animal veterinary practice has long been reported as sub-optimal in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Evidence shows that skill utilisation is poor, and this is likely impacted by the very low ratios of non-veterinarian staff to each veterinarian in a veterinary practice. This participative action research utilised co-design with a range of staff practising in companion animal clinical practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand, who self-selected as having experience with excellent utilisation. Participants were asked to imagine what a future with excellent utilisation in Aotearoa/New Zealand would look like. This research clarifies role definitions of a veterinarian, companion animal registered veterinary nurse and companion animal healthcare assistant, documents examples of task allocation in an interprofessional team, and develops models to show how ratios of 11:2–14:2 of non-veterinarian staff to veterinarians could be operationalised. The outcomes of achieving this model are likely be beneficial to staff, animals, clients and the business profitability. However, a significant number of barriers are present which may prevent implementation of this model. These include lack of trust, poor team culture, perceived or real skill gaps in veterinary nurses, current legal risks associated with task delegation by veterinarians, and insufficient time available to implement change. Whilst overcoming some of these barriers requires industry-led solutions, many can be resolved immediately within individual teams. Therefore, there is no need to wait for industry change to begin creating veterinary teams with excellent utilisation within individual veterinary practices.

Effects of Closure of the Paediatric Department of a District Hospital on Regional Care: Analysis of Patient Flows.

The consequences of economization and staff shortage in the German health care system strongly affect paediatric care structures, especially in rural regions. It is not known how closures of paediatric departments influence patient flows of surrounding hospitals. Here, we investigate the quantitative effects of closure of the paediatric department of a district hospital and the subsequent opening of an alternative inpatient service on the utilisation of inpatient and outpatient care services of the two neighboring hospitals and the emergency services of the region. In the observation period from 2015 to 2019, patient-related data from the three hospitals in the study region as well as data from the rescue service were evaluated. In the year after the paediatric department of the district hospital was closed in 2016, the total number of inpatient cases in the region decreased by 33% (2015: n=1,787; 2016: n=1,193) and then decreased by an additional 11% (2019: n=1,005). The number of outpatient cases decreased by further 8% (2015: n=6,250; 2019: n=5,770). In the last observation year, emergency services were used much more frequently than in the year before the closure (2015: n=398; 2019: n=572). This means an increase of 44%. After the closure of the paediatric department, the total number of inpatient cases in the region fell sharply. However, actual gaps in care apparently did not arise. Before closing, the consequences for the surrounding hospitals should be assessed more precisely. Real gaps in care must be counteracted, e. g. through alternative outpatient services.

LACC2.0: Improving the LACC Algorithm for Reconstructing Satellite-Derived Time Series of Vegetation Biochemical Parameters

The locally adjusted cubic-spline capping (LACC) algorithm is well recognized for its effectiveness in the global time series reconstruction of vegetation biophysical and biochemical parameters. However, in its application, we often encounter issues, such as identifying positively biased outliers for vegetation biochemical parameters and reducing the influence of long consecutive gaps. In this study, we improved the LACC algorithm to address the above two issues by (1) incorporating a procedure to remove outliers and (2) integrating the spatial information of neighboring pixels for large data gap filling. To evaluate the performance of the new version of LACC (namely LACC2.0), leaf chlorophyll content (LCC) was taken as an example. A reference LCC curve was generated for each pixel of the global map as the true value for global evaluation, and a time series of LCC with real gaps in the original data for each pixel was created by adding Gaussian noises into observations for testing the effectiveness of time series reconstruction algorithms. Results showed that the percentage of pixels with an RMSE smaller than 5 μg/cm2 was improved from 81.2% in LACC to 96.4% in LACC2.0, demonstrating that LACC2.0 had the potential to provide a better reconstruction of global daily satellite-derived vegetation biochemical parameters. This finding highlights the significance of outlier removal and spatial-temporal fusion to enhance the accuracy and reliability of time series reconstruction.

Reconstruction of a spatially seamless, daily SMAP (SSD_SMAP) surface soil moisture dataset from 2015 to 2021

Surface soil moisture (SSM) is a vital component in terrestrial hydrological processes. As a type of important microwave remote sensing-based SSM dataset, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) SSM data were available since 2015 and have been applied to many studies. However, the spatial gaps in the SMAP SSM data affect greatly its applicability. To address this issue, this study developed a method to fill the spatial gaps in the SMAP SSM data, generating a spatially seamless, daily SMAP (SSD_SMAP) SSM dataset from 2015 to 2021. The method makes full use of the long SMAP SSM time-series data with inherent spatial gaps. To deal with the continuously changed spatial gaps in the daily SMAP data, we used a highly comparative time-series analysis (HCTSA) to dig the temporal profiles of the SMAP SSM time-series, producing 17 seamless HCTSA-based time-series characteristics (HTCs). Both spatially seamless topography characteristics (TCs) and location characteristics (LCs) were also considered. Moreover, a random forest (RF) model was trained to construct the relation between the valid daily SMAP data at the prediction time and the seamless auxiliary data (i.e., 17 HTCs coupled with TCs and LCs). Subsequently, the constructed RF model was migrated to fill the spatial gaps of the SMAP data at the corresponding time. The proposed method was validated in both simulated gaps (real data as reference) and real gaps (in-situ SSM data as reference). The produced SSD_SMAP dataset was also compared with the model-based Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) dataset. The results indicated that the SSD_SMAP data are closer to the in-situ data, with an unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE) of ∼ 0.040 m3/m3. The SSD_SMAP dataset can provide data support for global and regional research in related fields.

Study of coordinated control strategy for hybrid AC–DC microgrid in islanding mode

As a kind of generation and distribution system with autonomous control, AC–DC hybrid microgrid plays a pivotal role in the transformation and development of modern power grids. To address the problems of microgrid system instability that occur in islanding mode, the study proposes a coordinated control strategy for hybrid AC/DC microgrid in islanding mode. First, the bidirectional AC/DC interconnection converter is modelled and parametrically designed; second, the control strategy of the interconnection converter in islanding mode is raised, including both active power control with double-loop control and seamless switching of operation modes with pre-synchronous control, and in the end, the effectiveness of the strategy is examined. The data display that under this strategy, the real and reactive power output gaps between the micro sources in the hybrid microgrid do not exceed 0.01 kW and 0.03 kVAR, respectively, and the current during islanding switching is more stable up to 32 A. This shows that the strategy effectively improves the shortcomings of the traditional regulation method, realizes the accurate distribution of real and reactive power, improves the power sharing between DC and AC subgrids, strengthens the stability and reliability of the hybrid microgrid, and helps to promote the technological progress of the hybrid microgrid and escorts the efficient and green development of the smart grid.

Mechanisms of air breakdowns for aluminum conductors steel reinforced wire-wire gaps induced by propane jet flames

In recent years, events of transmission line tripping caused by wildfires have occurred frequently in many mountain areas. In order to understand the mechanism of such events, an experimental system for simulating breakdown discharge processes of model wires induced by a simulated fire source is designed. In this experiment, propane jet flame (somewhat like eruptive fires in real wild fires) is used as a simulated flame source. By setting three different gas flow rates and five different wire-wire gaps, discharge breakdown behaviors and characteristics between two ACSR (aluminum conductors steel reinforced) segments in propane flames with three flame zones are explored. The influences of these different factors on the breakdown characteristics and mechanisms of wire-wire air gaps are analyzed. Results show that breakdown voltages increase almost linearly with the increase of wire-wire gaps in continuous zone of the flames for three gas flow rates. For a short wire-wire gap like 5.0 cm, the pilot discharge channels can be formed more easily, stably and completely under a lower voltage and weaker external ionization environment. The propane jet flame conditions are complex and affected by multiple actions like initial jet force (affected by gas flow rate), temperature distribution, soot particle, ion wind. As a result, local electric field will be distorted, a streamer channel is established dependently in different cases. These factors play individual, competitive or synergistic roles at the same time in breakdowns of real ACSR wire-wire gaps.

Quality Profile of Remote Areas Elementary Schools

Not all schools understand the policies and procedures for carrying out the school functions based on SNP, among others, caused by due to the lack of understanding/inability of schools to conduct internal self-evaluations, which will provide the description of the real school quality gaps against the SNP, as well as a basis for reference in preparing the RKS and RKAS. This study aims to describe the quality profile of remote elementary schools (SD) in Kapuas Districts, Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The descriptive study with a qualitative approach was conducted in 6 (six) remote areas in SD. The data sources in this study consisted of 6 (six) principals and the Kapuas Districts Education Office personnel. Through interview techniques, observation, and filling out the e-EDS instrument developed by the researchers referring to the SNP for primary and secondary education, quality data of the remote areas SD was collected; then analyzed using interactive data analysis. The results showed that all of the remote areas SD get a “red report”. This study provides additional evidence that disparity problem of primary education quality in remote areas has not been handled properly by education policy makers in Kapuas Districts and related stakeholders. We recommend to the related parties to “borrowing” policies from other countries that have succeeded to overcoming the problems of remote areas education as a means to carry out lessons learned and redesign policies in the future.

Revealing transport inequality from an activity space perspective: A study based on human mobility data

Closing mobility and accessibility gaps between public transit riders and private car users is key to tackling social exclusion and achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, place-based potential accessibility methods do not accurately measure real gaps in the uptake of activity opportunities because people usually have limited activity spaces. This study introduces people-based activity space approaches to measure activity disparities between the two modal groups. To overcome difficulties in obtaining large-scale individual activity data, this study used vehicle plate recognition data and public transit smart card data to anonymously identify activities. Individual activity spaces were characterised by six primary activity features from different dimensions. The analysis confirmed that, relative to transit riders, people who use cars on average accessed more activities within a larger activity space and enjoyed overall higher travel efficiency. A comprehensive indicator was further derived from the primary activity features to quantify activity disparities at the zone level. Zones with the highest risk of social exclusion were observed in the outskirts. In contrast, the city centre and inner suburbs exhibited significant equality of the two transport modes in fulfilling mobility needs for engagement in activities. Activity disparities between the two modalities were determined per area in specific activity dimensions, namely activity extensity, activity diversity, and travel efficiency. Finally, statistical models provided evidence that public transport facilities (especially rail transit) and location factors (distance to the city centre) are essential in determining modality-associated gaps in access to urban activity opportunities. Socioeconomic status and land use diversity also partially contributed to the inequality in specific dimensions of the activity space. This people-centred approach is critical for tackling transport inequality and achieving SDGs while “leaving no one behind”.

Multiple gap-filling for eddy covariance datasets

With novel developments in technology, eddy covariance flux measurements have become feasible for a variety of trace gases. While the statistical properties and gap-filling strategies have been well examined for carbon dioxide, these are much less understood for other gases.Here, we propose a universal methodology deploying multiple gap-filling techniques and artificial gap scenarios to evaluate the techniques’ performances, infer the statistical flux properties, and fill the real gaps in eddy covariance datasets of any trace gas. The methodology was implemented in a gap-filling framework with techniques spanning from simple and diurnal interpolations, look-up tables, artificial neural networks, to an inferential model. For the new scheme of half-hourly and daily artificial gaps, each additional gap was superimposed one at a time (thus keeping the disturbance to a minimum) for the whole dataset and the scenarios were resampled by bootstrapping. The gap-filled sums were then estimated from the ensemble of well-performing gap-filling techniques. The gap-filling framework was applied to campaign data of three different trace gases (51 days of ammonia, 79 days of total reactive nitrogen, and 89 days of methane flux measurements). The aggregated fluxes are stated as ensemble ranges of multiple techniques plus the techniques’ uncertainties. Additionally, the framework was used to gap-fill a full year of carbon dioxide flux measurements yielding similar performances as previously reported.Based on a review of gap-filling comparison studies and on our findings, we suggest reconsidering the standard procedure of using one gap-filling technique for multi-site studies. Deploying multiple gap-filling techniques and providing ensemble results of gap-filled sums will help to minimize the influence of a single technique and thus lead to a more robust flux aggregation. Furthermore, the estimated overall uncertainty will be more realistic by accounting for the ensemble range of multiple techniques.

413.3: Towards a National System of Living Donor Follow-up in Canada

Introduction: Despite the provision of universal health care, there are several real or potential gaps in the post-donation care of living kidney donors in Canada. Health services are administrated by provincial governments and there is no national standard for living donor follow-up. In the absence of a national standard, transplant programs lack dedicated funding to ensure appropriate long-term follow-up of living donors and there is no mechanism to obtain national information about the health outcomes of living donors including death or kidney failure. Methods: We describe our ongoing work-plan to establish national consensus on the follow-up of living kidney donors in Canada and to establish funding for a new national system of living donor follow-up. This work was financially supported by Canadian Blood Services. The results of completed activities will be presented. Results: The work-plan includes: 1) An environmental scan of the current practice of living donor follow-up. This showed significant clinical practice variation between the 28 adult and pediatric kidney transplant programs. 2) A literature search to determine international models of living donor follow-up, which revealed significant international variation in practice and failed to identify a preferred model for implementation in Canada. 3) A survey of 685 living donors, which was undertaken to determine donors’ experience, needs, satisfaction and preferences for follow-up. The survey revealed that most (72%) of donors receive follow-up from a primary care physician, a minority (30%) of donors were dissatisfied with their follow-up, and two thirds endorsed life-long follow-up after donation. 4) A stakeholder conference including past donors, transplant professionals and researchers will be held in October 2022. This conference will include presentation of background information, breakout discussions led by facilitators and a plenary session in order to establish consensus recommendations on living donor follow-up including donor consent, essential data capture, and implementation recommendations. The workshop recommendations will also be used to produce a report. Finally, we plan to advance a business plan to implementation in all 28 kidney transplant programs. Conclusions: The presentation will summarize our workplan and findings to date. The information may be useful in other countries or regions considering establishment of living donor follow-up programs. This work was financially supported by Canadian Blood Services.

Website transparency of dermatology residency programs: a cross-sectional study.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dermatology residency application process rapidly transitioned in a number of dimensions. As in-person activities were canceled and USMLE Step 1 has become pass/fail, there have been several proposed changes to enhance the process, including a push for increased transparency. Given than most dermatology applicants use program websites to learn more about potential residency programs, we conducted a cross-sectional study to quantify how transparent dermatology residency program website were, relative to published guidelines. From February 11, 2022, to February 25, 2022, we examined the available websites of all ACGME-accredited dermatology residencies to determine transparency regarding information dissemination, selection criteria, interview process, program priorities, and program requirements and opportunities. 136 out of 143 dermatology programs (95.1%) were included. Overall, programs were most transparent with program requirements and opportunities (87.25%). This included information on hospital locations, subspecialty clinics, and rotation/call/didactic schedules. Programs were least transparent with sharing their selection and/or exclusion criteria (31.13%) and varied in how much information they shared about the interview process (39.34%), as well as program priorities (64.56%). Opportunities remain for dermatology programs to improve website transparency and aid applicants in this difficult-to-navigate process. These results identify real transparency gaps, with several potential foci for improvement. Our main study limitation is its focus on a single time-period; to ensure that this information remains up to date, ongoing efforts to periodically resurvey content changes is warranted. Our findings provide an overview of programs’ successes and remaining opportunities to follow published transparency guidelines; overall, these findings may guide individual program directors aiming to improve the transparency of their dermatology residency programs and ultimately benefit our future workforce.

Digital proficiency: Sorting real gaps from myths among higher education students

AbstractDigital competence is among the basic key competences for digital learning and employability. For this reason, its acquisition and development should be on the agenda of higher education institutions (HEIs) who wish to prepare their students to thrive in an ever faster evolving digital labour market. However, the existence of a valid instrument that can help HEIs measuring and further integrating digital competence into pedagogical and organisational practices with sufficient precision is yet to be accomplished. This article provides a valid and reliable instrument to measure higher education students' digital competence on the basis of the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens, also known as DigComp. The instrument was applied to a sample of 411 students from a mid‐large public HEI and the results attest its validity and reliability. In addition, the study explores proficiency differences among students from different fields of education and training, and gender. Results demystify the idea that ICT students are more digitally competent than those in other fields of study, but suggest males score higher than females, which feeds into the ongoing debate of gender differences in relation to digital technologies and the readiness of females for the digital labour market. The results lead to clear implications for research and practice. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Digital competence is critical for higher education (HE) students to benefit from digital learning, strive in a digital society and increase employability prospects. There is a lack of valid instruments to measure higher education (HE) students' digital competence and facilitate the identification of digital competence gaps. Few studies focus on the relationship between HE students' digital competence, gender and fields of education and training (FET). What this paper adds A valid and reliable instrument based on a common European framework for digital competence. HE students lack the necessary digital competences to effectively cope with digital environments. Digital proficiency is particularly low regarding “Safety”, “Problem solving” and “Digital content creation” competence areas. ICT students show less proficiency than those from other FET. Male students score higher than females. Implications for practice and/or policy The instrument can be adopted by different stakeholders to assess students/future job seekers' digital competence. HE institutions could benefit from such an instrument as a diagnosis to design specific teaching and learning strategies and target students' proficiency and particular needs. Tackling specific FET and competence areas can better support the development of students' digital competence and facilitate their employability prospects.

Neonatal mortality: the need for teaching strategies directed to the protection and promotion of children's health

The proper registration of cases of deaths and their analysis contribute to give visibility to the real gaps and demands of health services. The monitoring and the analysis of the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and its characteristics are paramount for the development of health policies and interventions aimed at the promotion and protection of child health. Thus, we aimed to characterize neonatal deaths recorded in Palmas, Tocantins, Brazil, in the period from 1999 to 2018, according to sex, weight and age of newborns, maternal age, and municipality of occurrence. There were 800 deaths of children aged up to 27 days of life in the municipality of Palmas from 1999 to 2018, with a statistical difference in the proportion of neonatal deaths according to the occurrence of the event, gender, and weight, with a higher proportion of early neonatal deaths when their occurrence was in Palmas. Although the municipality of Palmas has recorded advances in infant mortality indicators, specifically in the neonatal component, considering that Brazil proposes to reduce newborn mortality to a maximum of five per thousand live births by 2030, advances will be necessary to qualify perinatal care in the region in order to avoid preventable infant deaths. Thus, an urgent demand is the improvement of prenatal and maternal-infant care services in the municipality in order to favor maternal and infant indicators.

CHINA PAKISTAN ECONOMIC CORRIDOR PROJECTS IN BALOCHISTAN; OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

This Paper is an effort to explore the on-going projects in Balochistan, Province Pakistan under China Pakistan Economic Corridor. The research paper is based upon the investigation of the cost, initiation, completion, and progress of these projects. It is also surrounding the impacts of all proposed projects in the projects on the common masses of the province. It is inculcating area of the project, its cost, either the project is partially under the umbrella of CPEC or fully for better understanding and analyzation. This has been done for every sector and project individually in tabular form which would help us to summarize more information and easy understandings.The paper also deals with the real time gaps between these projects and their impacts on the cost evaluation and management at provincial and central level. It has also tried to give a short comparison with the progress of projects based in other provinces. The paper is lightened with suggestions and remedial measures.

Simultaneous optimal short term SCUC solution and power system redesign with real gap decomposition technique

In this work, firstly, a decomposition technique is proposed and applied to solve the Security Constrained Unit Commitment problem (SCUC). A recently developed model for optimal short term programming of power generation in thermoelectric plants including transmission constraints is adopted. Real gap is computed at the final solution. Secondly, a method to analyze results and redesign the system structure is also proposed. By applying this method, critical lines and generators can be detected, and then, network improvements can be suggested by either eliminating or duplicating lines or generators. With the aim of studying the efficiency of the proposed method, two systems of different sizes are considered. The efficiency of the proposed technique is compared with the direct resolution of the original model and a linearly approximate model. The proposed decomposition technique presents a good performance: optimal solutions are obtained within small real gaps and efficient computing times. In power systems, the SCUC problem is solved every 60 minutes or less; therefore, the resolution time sought must be much less than that. Without applying the decomposition technique, the resolution of the SCUC problem takes several hours to reach an acceptable gap; and instead, when applying the decomposition technique; smaller gaps can be obtained in a few minutes.