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To the north of Hanoi, about a day's drive by car, lies Ha Giang Province, the northernmost region of Vietnam. Ha Giang is remote from the hustle and bustle of daily life, and beyond its eponymous provincial capital towards the border with China, mountains rise quickly to Quan Ba, 'Heaven's Gate'. The mountains form an uneven landscape of steep‐sided karst rising from deep river‐cut gorges and form a formidable barrier on the northern frontier of Vietnam. Beyond 'Heaven's Gate' lies the little travelled region of Dong Van, with its majestic mountains of Palaeozoic strata rising precipitously to the sky. Here, a century ago, the French geologists Henri Mansuy and Jacques Deprat documented early finds of fossils from lower Palaeozoic strata on the border with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ostracods are tiny bivalved crustaceans with a fossil record extending into rocks of the Lower Ordovician. They occupy almost all aquatic environments today, from the ocean abyssal planes to damp forest leaf litter. Their stratigraphical record suggests they had diversified into a wide range of marine and non-marine habitats already during the Palaeozoic. Through the Ordovician, ostracods are mostly known from marine shelf depositional settings. These are mostly podocope ostracods that appear to have had a benthic mode of life like their modern counterparts; myodocope ostracods, though known from the Ordovician, likely became pelagic only in the Silurian. As they are considered benthic, and possessed no pelagic larval stage, Ordovician podocope ostracods have been widely used as key biogeographical index species for much of the early Palaeozoic. A fundamental question in the oceanographic evolution of ostracods is: when did a psychrosphere evolve (a fauna inhabiting cool waters below the thermocline)? A psychrospheric ostracod fauna in the Ordovician would question some of their biogeographic utility, given that such taxa might have a much wider dispersal capability than more shallow shelf faunas. Here we describe a new ostracod fauna from a palaeotropical South China plate setting, preserved in Upper Ordovician mudstones and siltstones from northern Vietnam. The fauna contains taxa endemic to the South China palaeoplate, but also yields several taxa at the generic level that are known from European and North American Ordovician settings. We discuss whether these latter taxa might be indicative of a more widely dispersed deeper marine psychrospheric Ordovician ostracod fauna, and the implications this would have on traditional biogeographic models. We also discuss other possibilities for these apparently more cosmopolitan taxa, including homeomorphy, previously unknown palaeogeographical connections, and the possibility of pelagic podocope taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A numerically small graptolite assemblage from the Long Dai Formation at Lam Thuy village, southwestern Le Thuy district, Quang Binh Province, central Vietnam, includes Oktavites spiralis (Geinitz). The relative abundance of this species in the assemblage, coupled to its occurrence with Oktavites bodentoerlensis Loydell, identifies the lower Silurian (Llandovery Series, Telychian Stage) spiralis graptolite Biozone. Identification of the new locality at Lam Thuy enhances the dataset of Silurian graptolite-bearing localities in central Vietnam and advertises the wide utility of graptolite assemblages for biostratigraphical correlation of lower Palaeozoic strata in northern and central Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Introduction: Increasing evidence indicates that gender equity has a significant influence on women's health; yet few culturally specific indicators of gender relations exist which are applicable to health. This study explores dimensions of gender relations perceived by female undergraduate students in southern Vietnamese culture, and qualitatively examines how this perceived gender inequity may influence females' sexual or reproductive health. Methods: Sixty-two female undergraduate students from two universities participated in eight focus group discussions to talk about their perspectives regarding national and local gender equity issues. Results: Although overall gender gaps in the Mekong Delta were perceived to have decreased in comparison to previous times, several specific dimensions of gender relations were emergent in students' discussions. Perceived dimensions of gender relations were comparable to theoretical structures of the Theory of Gender and Power, and to findings from several reports describing the actual inferiority of women. Allocation of housework and social paid work represented salient dimensions of labor. The most salient dimension of power related to women in positions of authority. Salient dimensions of cathexis related to son preference, women's vulnerability to blame or criticism, and double standards or expectations. Findings also suggested that gender inequity potentially influenced women's sexual and reproductive health as regards to health information seeking, gynecological care access, contraceptive use responsibility, and child bearing. Conclusion: Further investigations of the associations between gender relations and different women's sexual and reproductive health outcomes in this region are needed. It may be important to address gender relations as a distal determinant in health interventions in order to promote gender-based equity in sexual and reproductive health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first plant microfossil assemblage from the Si Ka Formation of the Song Cau Group, northern Vietnam is reported. It is composed of cryptospores in dyads and tetrads, trilete spores, tubular remains consisting of an association of smooth, banded, and externally thickened tubes, and cuticle-like fragments. The biostratigraphic assemblage of sporomorphs indicates a late Silurian (late Ludfordian) to Early Devonian (early Lochkovian) age. Further comparison with coeval reports using the characteristic features of the assemblage confines their age to the late Ludlow (late Ludfordian) to early Přídolí. This report presents the oldest spore assemblage from Vietnam and contributes to a broader understanding of its paleo-landscape during the late Silurian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Increasing evidence indicates that gender equity has a significant influence on women's health; yet few culturally specific indicators of gender relations exist which are applicable to health. This study explores dimensions of gender relations perceived by female undergraduate students in southern Vietnamese culture, and qualitatively examines how this perceived gender inequity may influence females' sexual or reproductive health., Methods: Sixty-two female undergraduate students from two universities participated in eight focus group discussions to talk about their perspectives regarding national and local gender equity issues., Results: Although overall gender gaps in the Mekong Delta were perceived to have decreased in comparison to previous times, several specific dimensions of gender relations were emergent in students' discussions. Perceived dimensions of gender relations were comparable to theoretical structures of the Theory of Gender and Power, and to findings from several reports describing the actual inferiority of women. Allocation of housework and social paid work represented salient dimensions of labor. The most salient dimension of power related to women in positions of authority. Salient dimensions of cathexis related to son preference, women's vulnerability to blame or criticism, and double standards or expectations. Findings also suggested that gender inequity potentially influenced women's sexual and reproductive health as regards to health information seeking, gynecological care access, contraceptive use responsibility, and child bearing., Conclusion: Further investigations of the associations between gender relations and different women's sexual and reproductive health outcomes in this region are needed. It may be important to address gender relations as a distal determinant in health interventions in order to promote gender-based equity in sexual and reproductive health.