We shall present examples of Schauder bases in the preduals to the hyperfinite factors of types~$\hbox{II}_1$, $\hbox{II}_\infty$, $\hbox{III}_\lambda$, $0 < \lambda \leq 1$. In the semifinite (respectively, purely infinite) setting, these systems form Schauder bases in any associated separable symmetric space of measurable operators (respectively, in any non-commutative $L^p$-space).

We present a construction of singular rearrangement invariant functionals on Marcinkiewicz function/operator spaces. The functionals constructed differ from all previous examples in the literature in that they fail to be symmetric. In other words, the functional $\phi$ fails the condition that if $x\pprec y$ (Hardy-Littlewood-Polya submajorization) and $0\leq x,y$, then $0\le \phi(x)\le \phi(y).$ We apply our results to singular traces on symmetric operator spaces (in particular on symmetrically-normed ideals of compact operators), answering questions raised by Guido and Isola.

It is shown that Schatten $p$-classes of operators between Hilbert spaces of different (infinite) dimensions have ultrapowers which are (completely) isometric to non-commutative $L_p$-spaces. On the other hand, these Schatten classes are not themselves isomorphic to non-commutative $L_p$ spaces. As a consequence, the class of non-commutative $L_p$-spaces is not axiomatizable in the first-order language developed by Henson and Iovino for normed space structures, neither in the signature of Banach spaces, nor in that of operator spaces. Other examples of the same phenomenon are presented that belong to the class of corners of non-commutative $L_p$-spaces. For $p=1$ this last class, which is the same as the class of preduals of ternary rings of operators, is itself axiomatizable in the signature of operator spaces.