We present the X-ray timing results of the new black hole candidate (BHC) MAXI J1535-571 during its 2017 outburst from Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (Insight -HXMT) observations taken from 2017 September 6 to 23. Following the definitions given by Belloni (2010), we find that the source exhibits state transitions from Low/Hard state (LHS) to Hard Intermediate state (HIMS) and eventually to Soft Intermediate state (SIMS). Quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) are found in the intermediate states, which suggest different types of QPOs. With the large effective area of Insight -HXMT at high energies, we are able to present the energy dependence of the QPO amplitude and centroid frequency up to 100 keV which is rarely explored by previous satellites. We also find that the phase lag at the type-C QPOs centroid frequency is negative (soft lags) and strongly correlated with the centroid frequency. By assuming a geometrical origin of type-C QPOs, the source is consistent with being a high inclination system.

Many flooding-tolerant species are clonal plants; however, the effects of physiological integration on plant responses to flooding have received limited attention. We hypothesise that flooding can trigger changes in metabolism of carbohydrates and ROS (reactive oxygen species) in clonal plants, and that physiological integration can ameliorate the adverse effects of stress, subsequently restoring the growth of flooded ramets. In the present study, we conducted a factorial experiment combining flooding to apical ramets and stolon severing (preventing physiological integration) between apical and basal ramets of Cynodon dactylon, which is a stoloniferous perennial grass with considerable flooding tolerance. Flooding-induced responses including decreased root biomass, accumulation of soluble sugar and starch, as well as increased activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) in apical ramets. Physiological integration relieved growth inhibition, carbohydrate accumulation and induction of antioxidant enzyme activity in stressed ramets, as expected, without any observable cost in unstressed ramets. We speculate that relief of flooding stress in clonal plants may rely on oxidising power and electron acceptors transferred between ramets through physiological integration.

We studied the evolution of the X-ray and γ-ray spectra of the Crab pulsar utilizing the 11-year observations from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and 9-year observations from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST). By fitting the spectrum of each observation, we obtained the corresponding flux, and then analysed the long term evolution of the X-ray (or γ-ray) luminosities as well as their correlations with the spin down power of the pulsar. The X-ray flux in 5-60 keV obtained by the Proportional Counter Array (PCA) of RXTE decreases with a rate of (−2.4 ± 0.4) × 10 −14 erg cm −2 s −1 per day. The X-ray flux in 15-250 keV obtained by the High Energy X-ray Timing Experiment (HEXTE) of RXTE and the γ-ray flux in 0.1-300 GeV by the Large Area Telescope (LAT) onboard FGST show similar decreasing trend, but are unsignificant statistically.The 5-60 keV X-ray luminosity L X is correlated with the spin down power L sd by L X ∝L 1.6±0.3 sd , which is similar to the statistical results for young pulsars.