For the past three decades, China has experienced unparalleled economic growth to become the second largest economy in the world, and also the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter (Mo, 2016). Building operation accounts for 19.5% of China’s total energy consumption, and commercial buildings consumed 211 metric tons carbon equivalent (Mtce) in 2013, accounting for 27.9% of total building operation energy usage (THUBERC, 2015). With increasing urbanization and building stocks, energy retrofitting for commercial buildings1 is becoming an important strategy that China can use to reach its carbon emissions reduction target. Favorable government policies have greatly advanced building energy efficiency efforts, for both government-owned public buildings and privately owned commercial buildings. Building energy efficiency policy goals were set up in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (FYP) (2006– 2010) and Twelfth FYP (2011–2015); those goals are achieved by government programs such as the Top Runner program, and by monetary incentives like grants and subsidies (Yu, Evans, & Shi, 2014; NDRC, 2015; State Council, 2017). A self-sustaining and mature building energy efficiency retrofit market mechanism is, however, yet to be established. Going forward into the Thirteenth FYP (2016–2020), China’s commercial building energy efficiency industry will transition from government subsidy-driven to market-driven with legislative support (State Council, 2017). The Chinese government’s advocacy of the green finance system has provided new opportunities for the building energy efficiency market to go through this transition (IPECC, 2016). However, significant barriers still remain if the building energy efficiency market wants to become self-sustaining and prosper; this requires a set of supportive government policies that set up a healthy market ecosystem. This study examines existing energy efficiency upgrade barriers for commercial buildings, and then presents a series of stakeholder interviews with energy service companies (ESCOs), commercial banks, hosts, property management companies, measurement and verification companies, and government. Interviewees range from high level executive teams and middle managers to ground-level staff, depending on staff availability and accessibility.

The critical current densities of polycrystalline bulk SmFeAsO1-xFx prepared by the powder-in-tube (PIT) method and by a conventional solid-state reaction were investigated using the remnant magnetic moment method and Campbell's method. Two types of shielding current, corresponding to global and local critical current densities Jc were observed using both measurement methods. The global and local Jc were on the order of 107 A/m2 and 1010 A/m2 at 5 K, respectively. The local Jc decreased slightly with increasing magnetic field. The global Jc was independent of the preparation method, while the local Jc was larger for samples prepared by PIT than for those prepared by solid-state reaction. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

We present a measurement of the quasar luminosity function in the range 0.68 < z < 4 down to extinction corrected magnitude gdered = 22.5, using a simple and well understood target selection technique based on the time-variability of quasars. The completeness of our sample was derived directly from a control sample of quasars, without requiring complex simulations of quasar light-curves or colors. A total of 1877 quasar spectra were obtained from dedicated programs on the Sloan telescope (as part of the SDSS-III/BOSS survey) and on the Multiple Mirror Telescope. They allowed us to derive the quasar luminosity function. It agrees well with results previously published in the redshift range 0.68 < z < 2.6. Our deeper data allow us to extend the measurement to z = 4. We measured quasar densities to gdered < 22.5, obtaining 30 QSO per deg2 at z < 1, 99 QSO per deg 2 for 1 < z < 2.15, and 47 QSO per deg2 at z > 2.15. Using pure luminosity evolution models, we fitted our LF measurements and predicted quasar number counts as a function of redshift and observed magnitude. These predictions are useful inputs for future cosmology surveys such as those relying on the observation of quasars to measure baryon acoustic oscillations. © 2013 ESO.

We present the Data Release 10 Quasar (DR10Q) catalog from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III. The catalog includes all BOSS objects that were targeted as quasar candidates during the first 2.5 years of the survey and that are confirmed as quasars via visual inspection of the spectra, have luminosities Mi[z = 2] <-20.5 (in a ΛCDM cosmology with H0 = 70 km s-1 Mpc-1, ΩM = 0.3, and ΩΛ = 0.7), and either display at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) larger than 500 km s-1 or, if not, have interesting/complex absorption features. The catalog also includes known quasars (mostly from SDSS-I and II) that were reobserved by BOSS. The catalog contains 166 583 quasars (74 454 are new discoveries since SDSS-DR9) detected over 6373 deg2 with robust identification and redshift measured by a combination of principal component eigenspectra. The number of quasars with z > 2.15 (117 668) is ~5 times greater than the number of z > 2.15 quasars known prior to BOSS. Redshifts and FWHMs are provided for the strongest emission lines (C iv, C iii, Mg ii). The catalog identifies 16 461 broad absorption line quasars and gives their characteristics. For each object, the catalog presents five-band (u, g, r, i, z) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.03 mag and information on the optical morphology and selection method. The catalog also contains X-ray, ultraviolet, near-infrared, and radio emission properties of the quasars, when available, from other large-area surveys. The calibrated digital spectra cover the wavelength region 3600-10 500 Å at a spectral resolution in the range 1300 < R < 2500; the spectra can be retrieved from the SDSS Catalog Archive Server. We also provide a supplemental list of an additional 2376 quasars that have been identified among the galaxy targets of the SDSS-III/BOSS. © 2014 ESO.