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Molecular diagnostics have become indispensable in healthcare, agriculture, and environmental monitoring. This diagnostic form can offer rapid and precise identification of pathogens and biomarkers. However, traditional laboratory-based molecular testing methods can be expensive and require specialised training, limiting their accessibility in resource-limited settings and on-site applications. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes an innovative approach to reducing costs and complexity in portable colorimetric loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) devices. The research evaluates different resistive heating systems to create an energy-efficient, cost-effective, and compact device to heat a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) block for precise temperature control during LAMP reactions. By combining this novel heating system with an off-the-shelf red-green-blue (RGB) sensor to detect and quantify colour changes, the integrated system can accurately detect Leifsonia xyli subsp. xyli, the bacteria responsible for ratoon stunting disease (RSD) in sugarcane. The experimental validation of this system demonstrates its ability to detect the target pathogen in real time, making it an important development for low cost, portable, and easy-to-use molecular diagnostics in healthcare, agriculture, and environmental monitoring applications.

Cropping industries are impacted by multiple biotic constraints that result in significant economic and productivity losses due to pests and diseases, and disease management costs both pre- and post-harvest. Bacterial, fungal, and viral pathogens are estimated to cause 16 % of global crop losses pre-harvest, and thus accurate and informed disease management is required to ensure optimal yields. Significant economic risks are posed by several major diseases, which require host management approaches and accurate, sensitive, and rapid detection of the causative organisms to inform plant disease management. Over the last decade, many methods have been developed for detecting disease-causing organisms using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, real-time polymerase chain reaction, microarray, and loop-mediated isothermal amplification based tools. Most of these methods are highly selective and specific but unsuitable for on-site application. These methods are time consuming and require complex instrumentation. Sugarcane is a major cash crop in Australia with economic activity of over a billion dollars annually and many billions more globally, and thus there is a need to develop rapid on-site diagnostic tools with less complex assays for the early detection of sugarcane pathogens. This review considers the usability of commonly used sugarcane sample preparation and pathogen detection techniques, with a particular focus on on-site diagnostics and the associated challenges. In addition, the state-of-the-art methods for overcoming these challenges are critically analyzed.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the first gallery founded by artists in Tunis, the painters Moses Levy, Pierre Boucherle, Antonio Corpora and Jules Lellouche published in 1936 a manifesto affirming their autonomy, beyond mercantile logics and national assignments. However, a national reading of their works prevailed in the press, at that time. This article proposes to put this founding event of the « École de Tunis » into context, by reinscribing it in a century-old history. This past is marked by the presence of French and Italian artists between 1840 and 1880, by the failure of a policy of asserting a French artistic model with an aborted project for a French museum around 1890, and by the affirmation of an artistic life characterised since the 1910s by its pluralism and even its eclecticism. This article thus intends to contribute, through the example of pictorial production, to the historicisation of discourses on the plurality or cultural identity of Tunisia, which are still today objects of debate.