The identification of plants used to make tapa artefacts: development of a reference DNA database and trial of non-destructive DNA extraction methods.

Tapa (barkcloth) is a non-woven textile made from the inner bark of some plant species. Tapa manufacture was once widespread throughout the Pacific and tapa from the eighteenth and nineteenth century form part of Pacific collections in many museums. Here we examined the feasibility of DNA identification of the plants used to make tapa artefacts by developing and testing a DNA reference database of chloroplast L intron P6 loop sequences from many of the plant species used to make tapa, as well as other New Zealand textile plants.

Understanding Stress-Strain Behavioral Change in Fabrics for Compression Bandaging.

Bandages are common in many health-related treatments, including management of edema of the lower limb where they may remain in place for several days. The behavior of 2 bandage fabrics was investigated after exposure for up to 5 days to a multiaxial extension laboratory setup on a tensile tester in compression mode. The fabrics were extended 20% and remained under that machine setting.