GATE XL case studies
GATE XL · Put your knowledge to work in context.
GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) is a computer based examination conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) on behalf of the Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India. It is aimed at candidates preparing for postgraduate study: admissions to Master's and Doctoral programmes with MoE and other Government scholarships or assistantships in Engineering/Technology/Architecture/Science are open to those who qualify in GATE. The GATE XL case studies are 5 cases and about 4,398 words.
1A curved double-reciprocal plot in a recombinant esterase: substrate inhibition, cooperativity, or cosolvent artefact?
You are characterising a recombinant bacterial esterase for a directed-evolution campaign. Assays run at 25 °C in 25 mM Tris-HCl pH 8.0, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM DTT, using p-nitrophenyl acetate and following A405 for 60 s.
847 words, about 4 min2Scheduled process for canned mushroom soup: which z-value governs the lethality calculation?
A low-acid canned mushroom soup (pH 5.2, aw 0.98, 400 g cans) is processed in a still retort. The scheduled process is 112 °C retort temperature with a 22 min hold after come-up.
848 words, about 4 min3Allele balance, maternal mosaicism and recurrence risk in a trio exome
A 3-year-old boy with epileptic encephalopathy undergoes clinical trio whole-exome sequencing (mean on-target coverage 92x). A heterozygous nonsense variant in a known disease gene is reported in the proband with 26 alternate reads out of 84 (VAF 0.31).
864 words, about 4 min4Stomatal versus non-stomatal limitation in salt-stressed tomato: reading gas exchange against fluorescence
Two tomato cultivars are compared in a greenhouse 30 days after transplanting under control (EC 1.2 dS m⁻¹) and saline (EC 6.0 dS m⁻¹, applied as NaCl/CaCl₂) irrigation, four replicates. On the youngest fully expanded leaf the team measures light-saturated net photosynthesis (A, µmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹), stomatal conductance (gs, mol m⁻² s⁻¹), intercellular CO₂ (Ci, µmol mol⁻¹; chamber Ca = 400), dark-adapted Fv/Fm, and leaf N (%).
906 words, about 5 min5A skim milk powder that passes on crude protein but fails on true protein
An incoming lot of skim milk powder is evaluated against a purchase specification of 'protein ≥ 35.0% (dry basis)'. The supplier's certificate of analysis states 36.0% protein (Kjeldahl, N × 6.38) and 4.0% moisture.
933 words, about 5 min