Nd-Fe-B type powder was sintered using spark plasma sintering method. Fabricated compact sintered at the temperature of , is found to be a composite magnet with Nd-Fe-Co-B and . The compact sintered at shows slightly low coercivity and large remanent magnetization comparing to the compact sintered at due to the formation of phase, resulting in the large maximum energy product. Maximum energy product tends to decrease with decreasing thickness of sintered compacts below 0.5 mm in thickness.

To find out the possible inefficiencies of artificial inseminators at rectovaginal insemination in cows, inseminators' skill were evaluated by controlling the semen thawing procedure adopted and by using the technique of dye deposition in the genital tract of slaughtered cows. This was followed by refreshment training for the inseminators. Thirty seven artificial insemination technicians regularly working in the government, cooperative and NGO (Non Government Organization) artificial insemination programmes at different places of Bangladesh were included in the study. Individual technicians were asked to thaw a semen straw and deposit dye in the genital tract of slaughtered cows following the procedures they would have adopted in their actual practices of insemination. The time and water temperature adopted by technicians were recorded and genital tract after sham artificial insemination was dissected to determine the site of dye deposition. Then, the inseminators took part in a three days intensive training program. The training program was ended up with the same tests for thawing frozen semen straw and dye deposition in the genital tract of slaughtered cows. At pre training evaluation, only inseminators adopted co..ect thawing time and temperature, respectively. At post training evaluation, all inseminators thawed semen straws for proper time and temperature. At pretraining evaluation, inseminators deposited dye at the body of uterus, in the vagina or in cervix, and into the horn of uterus, respectively. In cases dye did not pass into the genital tract, instead back flowed through the space between the barrel of insemination gun and sheath. At post training evaluation, all inseminators successfully deposited dye in the body of uterus. Frequent evaluation of inseminators' skill and subsequent training would help improvement of the artificial insemination technicians' skill.

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of EGF on meiotic maturation and pronuclear (PN) formation of porcine oocytes. Prepubertal gilt cumulus-oocyte-complexes (COCs) aspirated from 2~6mm follicles of abbatoir ovaries were matured in TCM199 containing 0.1mg/ml cysteine, 0.5㎍/ml FSH and LH, and EGF (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 ng/ml) for 22 hr at 39℃ in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air. They were then cultured for an additional 22hr without hormones. In Experiment 1, to examine the nuclear maturation at 44hr of culture, the expanded cumulus cells were removed by vortexing for 1 min in 3 mg/ml hyaluronidase. The oocytes were fixed in acetic acid: methanol (1:3, v/v) at least for 48 hr and stained with 1% orcein solution for 5 min. Nuclear status was classified as germinal vesicle (GV), germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), prophase-metaphase I (PI-MI), and PII-MII under microscope. In Experiment 2, to investigate PN formation, oocytes were fertilized with Percoll-treated freshly ejaculated sperm (1 x10 5 cells/ml) in mTBM with 0.3% BSA and 2mM caffeine for 5hr, and cultured in NCSU-23 medium with 0.4% BSA. At 6hr of culture, the embryos were fixed in 3.7% formaldehyde for 48hr and stained with 10ug/ml propidium iodide for 30 min. PN status was classified as no or one PN (unfertilized), 2 PN (normal fertilized) and ≥3 PN (polyspermy). Differences between groups were analyzed using one-way ANOVA after arc-sine transformation of the proportional data. The rate of oocytes that had reached to PII-MII were significantly (P<0.05) higher in all groups added EGF than that of non-treated group (67%), but it did not differ among the all added groups (86%, 85%, 79% and 81%, in 5, 10, 20 and 40 ng/ml EGF, respectively). No differences on the incidence of 2PN were observed in all treated groups (25%, 30%, 33%, 29% and 29%, in 0, 5, 10, 20 and 40 ng/ml EGF, respectively), however, in non-treated group, polyspermy tended to be increased (66% vs 58%, 54%, 52% and 55%, 0 vs. 5, 10, 20, 40 ng/ml EGF, respectively). These results suggest that EGF can be effectively used as an additive for enhancing oocyte maturation and reducing the incidence of polyspermy in pig.