Roadmap Framework Research Articles

Structure-Guided Protein Transition Modeling with a Probabilistic Roadmap Algorithm.

Proteins are macromolecules in perpetual motion, switching between structural states to modulate their function. A detailed characterization of the precise yet complex relationship between protein structure, dynamics, and function requires elucidating transitions between functionally-relevant states. Doing so challenges both wet and dry laboratories, as protein dynamics involves disparate temporal scales. In this paper, we present a novel, sampling-based algorithm to compute transition paths. The algorithm exploits two main ideas. First, it leverages known structures to initialize its search and define a reduced conformation space for rapid sampling. This is key to address the insufficient sampling issue suffered by sampling-based algorithms. Second, the algorithm embeds samples in a nearest-neighbor graph where transition paths can be efficiently computed via queries. The algorithm adapts the probabilistic roadmap framework that is popular in robot motion planning. In addition to efficiently computing lowest-cost paths between any given structures, the algorithm allows investigating hypotheses regarding the order of experimentally-known structures in a transition event. This novel contribution is likely to open up new venues of research. Detailed analysis is presented on multiple-basin proteins of relevance to human disease. Multiscaling and the AMBER ff14SB force field are used to obtain energetically-credible paths at atomistic detail.

Framework, approach and process for investment road mapping: a tool to bridge the theory and practices of flood risk management

The Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015) has been a long-standing international policy instrument for disaster risk management. However, many developing countries still lack the appropriate risk management policies and frameworks that suit the national and local needs. There is little or no discussion on the appropriate framework, approach and process for the implementation of international or national policies into the practices. There are many unanswered questions, particularly related to the standards and linkages among proposed tools such as damage, risk and need assessments, and their uses in the formulation of strategies and investment road maps. As a result, flood risk management related problems and issues are often addressed by many countries in an ad hoc and fragmented fashion. For many developing countries, the most pressing challenge at present is to find a trade-off between their capacity and risk reduction options. This paper discusses the current gaps and proposes the framework, approach, processes, and methodologies, in the form of guidelines, leading to the formulation of the flood risk management strategies and the investment road map.

A Strategic Roadmap for Navigating Academic-Industry Collaborations in Information Systems Research

Research collaboration between industry and academia remains challenging despite progress being made on a number of fronts. We are not implying that all information systems researchers should be engaging in industry collaborations, nor should the value of critique and work exclusively addressing academic and other audiences be viewed as less valuable than those engaging industry. The intent is instead to encourage more industry collaboration, and for those considering such initiatives to roadmap the activities strategically giving consideration to the full range of activities required so reasonable tradeoffs can be made in the context of building longer-term sustainable relationships. We develop a roadmap from literature that organizes the building blocks (component activities) needed to plan and implement strategic academic-industry collaborations over longer time horizons. Specifically, we identify the key themes or layers of (1) Strategic Business Problem(s), (2) Governance, (3) Funding Criteria, (4) Privacy, Security and Ethics, (5) Intellectual Property, (6) Research Design and (7) Recognized Outputs, which need to be in place if you are to succeed with academic-industry research. The roadmap framework highlights the need to consider the implications of the components across each of the layers at a particular point in time (vertical slice), the relationship between layers (dependencies) and the need for aligning the various activities in a coordinated manner; otherwise success at one layer is often undermined by a lack of awareness or failure at another layer. Our hope is that these themes (layers) facilitate organizing this collaboration in a systematic and coordinated manner to produce academic-industry collaborations that progressively improve over time.

Depicting the future strategic plans of the Royal Australian Navy using a roadmapping framework as a visual composite canvas

Strategic planning can be an arduous and complex task; and, once a plan has been devised, it is often quite a challenge to effectively communicate the principal missions and key priorities to the array of different stakeholders. The communication challenge can be addressed through the application of a clearly and concisely designed visualisation of the strategic plan – to that end, this paper proposes the use of a roadmapping framework to structure a visual canvas. The canvas provides a template in the form of a single composite visual output that essentially allows a ‘plan-on-a-page’ to be generated. Such a visual representation provides a high-level depiction of the future context, end-state capabilities and the system-wide transitions needed to realise the strategic vision. To demonstrate this approach, an illustrative case study based on the Australian Government's Defence White Paper and the Royal Australian Navy's fleet plan will be presented. The visual plan plots the in-service upgrades for addressing the capability shortfalls and gaps in the Navy's fleet as it transitions from its current configuration to its future end-state vision. It also provides a visualisation of project timings in terms of the decision gates (approval, service release) and specific phases (proposal, contract, delivery) together with how these projects are rated against the key performance indicators relating to the technology acquisition process and associated management activities.

A new ant based distributed framework for urban road map updating from high resolution satellite imagery

Receiving updated information about the network of roads from high resolution satellite imagery is a crucially important issue in continuously changing developing urban regions. Considering experiences in road extraction and also exploiting distributed evolutionary computational approaches, in this paper a new framework for road map updating from remotely sensed data is proposed. Three main computational entities of ant-agent, seed extractor and algorithm library are designed and road map updating is performed through three main stages of verification of the old map, extraction of possible roads and grouping of the results of both stages. Extracting corresponding pixels to each road element in the map, an object level supervised classification or any available road verification algorithm from the library capable of producing a road likeliness value is applied. Since road extraction is a simple and also a complex problem, more comprehensive algorithms are chosen from library iteratively by ant-agents so the decision about verification and rejection of each road element is finally made. Ant-agents facilitate choosing road elements and moving of ant agents via stigmergic communication by pheromone cast and evaporation. The proposed method is developed and tested using GeoEye-1 pan-sharpen imagery and 1:2000 corresponding digital vector map of the region. As observed, the results are satisfactory in terms of detection, verification and extraction of roads and generation of the updated map specifically in case of inspection of main roads. Besides, some missed road items are reported in case of inspection of bystreets and alleys specially when situated at the margin of the image. Completeness, correctness and quality measures are computed for evaluation of the initial and the resulted updated maps. The computed measures verify the improvement of the updated map.

A policy dimension required for technology roadmapping: learning from the emergence of Chinese wind turbine industry

Innovation policies play an important role throughout the development process of emerging industries in China. Existing policy and industry studies view the emergence process as a black-box, and fail to understand the impacts of policy to the process along which it varies. This paper aims to develop a multi-dimensional roadmapping tool to better analyse the dynamics between policy and industrial growth for new industries in China. Through reviewing the emergence process of Chinese wind turbine industry, this paper elaborates how policy and other factors influence the emergence of this industry along this path. Further, this paper generalises some Chinese specifics for the policy-industry dynamics. As a practical output, this study proposes a roadmapping framework that generalises some patterns of policy-industry interactions for the emergence process of new industries in China. This paper will be of interest to policy makers, strategists, investors and industrial experts.

Roadmapping an emerging energy technology: an ex-ante examination of dimethyl ether development in China

Technology roadmapping has been used to strategise the development of energy technologies. However, there have been limited roadmapping applications that analyse the emergence of a new energy technology that then forms a new industry and propels broad-based low-carbon economic growth. This paper, therefore, attempts to develop a roadmapping framework by integrating the lifecycle analysis tool, in order to strategise the emergence of dimethyl ether, an alternative energy based on advanced engineering technologies such as carbon capture and storage. This paper compares two scenarios of dimethyl ether vs. diesel and finds that the superiority of dimethyl ether will not arise until 2030, when the complementary engineering technologies become available. This proposed framework can also be generalised to other clean energy industries, and we anticipate our paper will spark inspiration for roadmapping and strategising the 'right' technologies for the growth of Chinese energy industries.

The customisation framework for roadmapping product-service integration

Product-service integration is becoming a dominant contemporary trend, motivated by how technology can shape areas of potential product/service interactivity and triggers interactions. Since the role of technology differs from case to case, the strategic planning of product-service integration should focus on accommodating the real-life business situation. In response, this paper suggests a customisation framework for product-service roadmapping according to the technological interface involved, and provides practical guidance in its implementation. This framework consists of five steps in three main stages. The first deals with the structural determination of roadmapping, planning ‘what to plan’, determining the role of technology and the roadmapping format. The second phase plans the functional determination, dealing the issue of ‘how to plan’, including deciding on the relevant roadmapping procedures and methodology. Finally, the roadmap for product-service integration is developed. To illustrate the workings of proposed approach, six case examples are provided for different modes of integration, providing a practical illustration for product-service integration.

Regulatory road maps for the integration of intermittent electricity generation: Methodology development and the case of The Netherlands

The envisaged increase in the share of electricity generation from intermittent renewable energy sources (RES-E) like wind and photovoltaics will pose challenges to the existing electricity system. A successful integration of these sources requires a cost-efficient use of system flexibility. The literature on the options to improve system flexibility, and thus the costs of successfully integrating intermittent electricity generating units, is still growing but what is lacking is an overarching systematic view on when to adopt which option in particular energy systems. This paper aims to bridge this gap in literature. We use existing insights on market and network integration of intermittent electricity sources within a regulatory road map framework. The framework allows policy makers and other electricity system stakeholders to arrive at a consistent strategy in dealing with integration issues over a longer period of time. In this contribution we present and explain the framework and apply it for the case of The Netherlands.

Elastic roadmaps—motion generation for autonomous mobile manipulation

The autonomous execution of mobile manipulation tasks in unstructured, dynamic environments requires the consideration of various motion constraints. The task itself imposes constraints, of course, but so do the kinematic and dynamic limitations of the manipulator, unpredictably moving obstacles, and the global connectivity of the workspace. All of these constraints need to be updated continuously in response to sensor feedback. We present the elastic roadmap framework, a novel feedback motion planning approach capable of satisfying all of these motion constraints and their respective feedback requirements. This framework is validated in simulation and real-world experiments using a mobile manipulation platform and a stationary manipulator.

A PROCESS FOR THE UPDATE AND REVIEW OF OPERATION AND TECHNOLOGY ROADMAPS

In order to aid Singaporean small and medium sized companies identify and select emerging technologies for business benefit, the Operation and Technology Roadmapping (OTR) process has been introduced and applied to over seventy companies. To help these companies continue the adoption of roadmapping, an update process has been developed and applied to ten organizations. This paper introduces the operation and technology roadmap methodology for roadmap creation, and then explores the process used for updating roadmaps. The update process involves an initial review of the roadmap technologies, products and service and drivers to see how 'accurate' the past roadmaps forecasts were and to establish 'rules' for the update of the roadmap. Once the review has been carried out, a decision is then made as to whether create a new roadmap or to update the existing roadmap. If a new roadmap is to be created the existing OTR process is followed. If the roadmap is to be updated then more emphasis is placed on carrying forward the information already present on the roadmap, with the addition of some new ideas within the current roadmap framework.

An architectural framework for roadmapping: Towards visual strategy

Since the first application of technology roadmapping in the late 1970s to support integrated product-technology planning, roadmapping concepts and techniques have been widely adopted at product, technology, company, sector and policy levels. The roadmapping approach is flexible and scalable, and can be customized to suit many different strategic and innovation contexts. However, this demands careful planning and design, including consideration of roadmap structure, process and participation. This paper explores the issues of how to design and architect roadmaps and roadmapping processes, which is crucial if the approach is to provide a framework for supporting effective dialogue and communication within and between organizations. The structure of the roadmap, and the process for developing and maintaining the roadmap, should be designed to serve the purpose for which the activity is intended to satisfy, providing a ‘common language and structure' for both development and deployment of strategy.

Applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to build a strategic framework for technology roadmapping

The development of a new concept called the Technology Development Envelope (TDE) is presented in this paper. The TDE is developed to transform the technology roadmapping approach to a level in which it is dynamic, flexible, and operationalizable. This new approach provides an effective way to help organizations to overcome the challenge of keeping a roadmap alive. The paper emphasizes how the AHP is applied as a part of the TDE framework.