Structural development of HDPE in injection molding

This study investigated some relevant structure/properties relationships in shear-controlled orientation in injection molding (SCORIM) of high-density polyethylene (HDPE). SCORIM was used to deliberately induce a strong anisotropic character in the HDPE microstructure. Three grades with different molecular weight characteristics were molded into tensile test bars, which were subsequently characterized in terms of the mechanical behavior by tensile tests and microhardness measurements. The structure developed upon processing was also characterized by polarized light microscopy (PLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD). SCORIM allows the production of very stiff molded parts, exhibiting a very well-defined laminated morphology. This morphology is associated with both an M-shaped microhardness profile and a pronounced mechanical anisotropy. These characteristics are supported by an analogous variation in the crystallinity and a high level of molecular orientation, as indicated, respectively, by calorimetric measurements and X-ray diffraction resultsSubprograma Ciência e Tecnologia do 2° Quadro Comunitário de Apoio, Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal)

Search for the Lepton-Flavor Violating Decays Upsilon(3S) -> e tau and Upsilon(3S) -> mu tau

15 pages, 4 postscript figures, submitted to QWG6Charged lepton-flavor violating processes are extremely rare in the Standard Model, but they may occur in several beyond-the-Standard Model theories, including Supersymmetry or models with leptoquarks or compositeness. We present a search for such processes in a sample of 117M Upsilon(3S) decays recorded with the BaBar detector. We place upper limits on the branching fractions BF(Upsilon(3S) -> e tau) mu tau) < 4.1e-6 at 90% confidence level. These results are used to place lower limits on the mass scale of beyond-the-Standard Model physics contributing to lepton-flavor violating decays of the Upsilon(3S)