The role of learning and knowledge in adapting to climate change: a case study of Norwegian municipalities

Coping with climate change includes the role of learning and knowledge. Taking a process perspective, this article analyses how municipal officers in the Oslo region of Norway are acquiring knowledge and building competence for adapting to climate change. The article illustrates the interaction between elements of experiential learning, transformative learning and social learning as bases for adapting to emerging climate changes; each being necessary and none alone being sufficient. Their importance differs according to how profound the changes in knowledge and competence are. Experiential learning and transformative learning are stronger under single-loop learning whereas social learning might emerge as more important under triple-loop learning. Because of the uncertainties of climate change, the central government might be wise not to issue detailed regulations for adaptation by municipalities.     

Remote focusing in confocal microscopy by means of a modified Alvarez lens

Alvarez lenses are actuated lens‐pairs which allow one to tune the optical power by mechanical displacement of subelements. Here, we show that a recently realized modified Alvarez lens design which does not require mechanical actuation can be integrated into a confocal microscope. Instead of mechanically moving them, the sublenses are imaged onto each other in a 4f‐configuration, where the lateral image shift leading to a change in optical power is created by a galvo‐mirror. The avoidance of mechanical lens shifts leads to a large speed gain for axial (and hence also 3D) image scans compared to classical Alvarez lenses. We demonstrate that the suggested operation principle is compatible with confocal microscopy. In order to optimize the system, we have drawn advantage of the flexibility a liquid‐crystal spatial light modulator offers for the implementation. For given specifications, dedicated diffractive optical elements or freeform elements can be used in combination with resonant galvo‐scanners or acousto‐optic beam deflectors, to achieve even faster z‐scans than reported here, reaching video rate.