Bioactive constituents of Iris hybrida (Iridaceae): Processing effect

Iris genus plants are a valuable source of bioactive compounds, which are an important component for pharmaceutical development. The present article shows the potential for mineral nutrition with application of magnesium sulfate, iron chelates and potassium oxide affecting the phenolic compound contents in Iris hybrida ‘Tsikavynka’, I. hybrida ‘Tambo’ and I. hybridа ‘Widecombe Fire’. The effect of mineral processing was specific to plant organs and varied in the component composition. The Iris rhizomes had an increased total phenolic compound content after treatment (up to 10% of the total isoflavonoid content, up to 8% of phenolic acids, up to 5% of γ-pyrones and up to 13% of flavonoids), determined using UV–vis spectroscopy. A positive effect of nutrition on the biosynthesis and content of individual isoflavonoids (tectoridin, nigricin d -glucoside, genistin, iristectorigenin B, nigricin, irigenin and irisolidone) and xanthone mangiferin in Iris rhizomes by HPLC was established. In addition, an increase in the chlorogenic acid amount in Iris leaves was noted. The results demonstrate the sensitivity of Iris phenylpropanoid metabolism to mineral nutrition and can be used to predict medical plant cultivation with increased content of bioactive constituents.     

Hyperplane sections of determinantal varieties over finite fields and linear codes

We determine the number of ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-rational points of hyperplane sections of classical determinantal varieties defined by the vanishing of minors of a fixed size of a generic matrix, and identify the hyperplane sections giving the maximum number of ${\mathbb{F}}_q$-rational points. Further we consider similar questions for sections by linear subvarieties of a fixed codimension in the ambient projective space. This is closely related to the study of linear codes associated to determinantal varieties, and the determination of their weight distribution, minimum distance, and generalized Hamming weights. The previously known results about these are generalized and expanded significantly. Connections to eigenvalues of certain association schemes, distance regular graphs, and rank metric codes are also indicated.     

A construction of representations of affine Weyl groups

Let G be a complex, semisimple, simply connected algebraic group withLie algebra . We extend scalars to the power series field in one variable C(()), and consider the space of Iwahori subalgebras containing a fixed nil-elliptic element of C(()),i.e. fixed point varieties on the full affine flag manifold. We definerepresentations of the affine Weyl group in the homology of these varieties,generalizing Kazhdan and Lusztig's topological construction of Springer'srepresentations to the affine context.     

Maximal degeneracy points of GKZ systems

Motivated by mirror symmetry, we study certain integral representations of solutions to the Gel´fand-Kapranov-Zelevinsky (GKZ) hypergeometric system. Some of these solutions arise as period integrals for Calabi-Yau manifolds in mirror symmetry. We prove that for a suitable compactification of the parameter space, there exist certain special boundary points, which we called maximal degeneracy points, at which all solutions but one become singular.