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The internationalization movement in higher education expanded quickly in the past two decades. While efforts varied among institutions, the common and preferred approach has been creation of International Branch Campuses (IBC). Currently, there are 283 IBCs, 30% of which are located in the Middle East region. This study explored the role of local culture context in shaping Western student affairs practices implemented at the American IBCs in the State of Qatar. A qualitative single-case study included interviews with 14 Western expatriates who were re-cited from the United States to work in the Student Affairs departments in Education City, Qatar. The intercultural competence framework was utilized to guide the study. Findings revealed the influence of the local cultural context in shaping student affairs practitioners' programs and events. Participants noted that they work in a collective society, with strong families ties and influence, with significant differences between Eastern and Western cultures. They described modifications to their events and programs to make them more relevant and to meet the needs of their local students and made recommendations for transition of new student affairs staff in the Middle East. Research findings suggest the significant role of the local Arab culture in shaping student affairs programs and initiatives differently from those in the United States.

Sedimentation, growth fault slip, and shelf-margin progradation rates were determined for a transect of Tertiary sediments along the axis of the San Marcos arch in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico basin. This low relief area was the site of shorezone depositional systems throughout most of the Tertiary and has not been affected by salt mobilization or the sedimentological overprint of large delta systems. Consequently, rates calculated in the area represent average rather than extreme values. Detailed correlation of 142 well logs and the utilization of paleontologic data from 17 wells made possible the construction of a chronostratigraphic cross section which divided the Tertiary section into 1 or 2 million year increments. A decompaction computer program, which utilizes published compaction curves and distinguishes between normally pressured shale, underconsolidated overpressured shale, and sandstone, calculated original sediment thickness and sedimentation rates for each of the chronostratigraphic layers. Regional sedimentation rates varied almost two orders of magnitude during the Tertiary. These findings seriously challenge the common assumption of relatively uniform sediment supply over geological time spans. Within individual chronostratigraphic layers, sedimentation rates ranged from 4 cm/1000 yrs in the fluvial and transgressive facies to 130 cm/1000 yrs in the lower Miocene outer shelf and slope facies. Decompaction of the section also allowed the calculation of growth fault slip rates and of the percent increase in accommodation on the downthrown side of the faults relative to their upthrown equivalents. Slip rates during times of maximum movement ranged from 250-600 m/my, agreeing with rates calculated for salt dome growth. Percent increase in accommodation on the downthrown side of the faults ranged from 20-83%. Shelf-margin progradation rates were calculated and ranged from -1.5 mi/my (2.4 km/my) during brief times of temporary retrogradation (Queen City and Yegua Formations) to 17.5 mi/my (28.2 km/my) during the Early Miocene

The Upper Wilcox genetic sequence (UWGS) is a transgressively bounded unit that represents the last major progradational episode associated with Wilcox (Paleocene-Eocene) deposition in the Texas Gulf Coast basin. The UWGS includes at outcrop, the Sabinetown Formation, the Carrizo Formation and the lower Reklaw Formation, and in the subsurface it includes the upper part of the Middle Wilcox Subgroup, all of the Upper Wilcox Subgroup and the lower part of the Reklaw Formation. UWGS depositional systems in the Rio Grande embayment (South Texas) include two large but distinct delta complexes, the Rosita and Burgos deltas. The Rosita delta system contains the Duval, Massive, and Live Oak deltas which were fed by the Carrizo fluvial system. The Burgos delta system contains the Fandango and the Zapata deltas and was fed by an unnamed and unmapped fluvial system originating from northern Mexico. Depositional systems within the UWGS in the Houston embayment (East Texas) include two small delta systems, the Columbus and the Jasper, and an intervening strandplain system, the Harris. The Columbus delta was supplied by the Jewett fluvial system and the Jasper delta by an unnamed and unmapped fluvial system originating in Louisiana. UWGS deposition began following the transgression of the Lower Wilcox shelf margin and the deposition of a regional marine mudstone containing a maximum flooding surface (MFS). An influx of sediment from the west from the last pulse of the Laramide Orogeny (55ma) began deltaic progradation in the Rio Grande embayment. At approximately the same time, delta systems in the Houston embayment first prograded and then were transgressed as the trunk fluvial system shifted to the southwest. The resulting transgressive deposits include the Yoakum shale, which defines the top of the Sabinetown Formation. A fall in sea level at the end of the Yoakum/Sabinetown transgression extended the delta systems in the Rio Grande embayment to the shelf edge; the smaller delta systems in the Houston embayment shifted basinward. A slow relative rise followed as the systems in both embayments continued to prograde/aggrade and then were progressively transgressed. A transgressive shelf with isolated sands ('Atkinson' sands) developed over the drowned basin margin. The Bigford barrier/lagoon complex marked the maximum landward migration of the shoreline

Deposition on the Texas coastal plain and shelf during the last Pleistocene glacial cycle has been interpreted from topographic and bathymetric maps, from borehole data including results of a detailed drilling study in Brazoria County, and from offshore sparker-profiles. The stratigraphic unit deposited during the last glacial cycle is bounded above by a largely undissected topographic surface (Beaumont), and below by a buried paleosol of stiff gray clay that correlates offshore with a persistent seismic reflector. The lower Texas coastal plain is essentially a clay-rich alluvial plain made up of coalescing low-gradient fans. The Beaumont alluvial plain onlaps an older surface (Lissie) which was tilted seaward prior to Beaumont deposition; the Lissie in turn onlaps remnants of older surfaces. During Beaumont deposition, each major coastal river deposited a branching network of meanderbelt sand-bodies by repeated avulsions. Borehole data for a meanderbelt of the ancestral Brazos River indicate that the channel was 5 to 7 m deep but that substantially greater sand thicknesses developed by stacking of point-bar sequences during fluvial aggradation. Downdip transition of fluvial deposits into deltaic and paralic sediments is inferred from shell beds, strike-oriented sand bodies, beach ridges, changes in clay color, and clinoform reflectors on sparker profiles. The updip limit of marine influence is delineated by the distribution of shell beds; the downdip limit of deltaic pro gradation is indicated by a paleobathymetric break in slope. Strike-oriented sands (Ingleside), including barrier islands and strandplains, developed contemporaneously with Beaumont fluvial aggradation. Sand thicknesses and multiple levels of sand suggest that beach-shoreface sequences are multistoried, similar to the fluvial sands. The thickest and widest strike sands formed in bights between the larger, more prominent deltaic systems. In response to falling sea level, deltas prograded from the Ingleside shoreline to the shelf edge. Sparker profiles show that deltaic thicknesses and offshore slopes increased gradually during progradation, then rapidly near the shelf edge, where deltaic sequences became stacked or imbricated. Major growth faulting and salt flowage near the shelf break were associated with the thickest deposits. Between the large Colorado and Rio Grande delta systems, reefs grew near the shelf edge. Late Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations resulted in three depositional phases: an aggradational phase (ca. 120,000 B.P.) during late rise and stillstand, dominated by fluvial and strike systems; a progradational phase (100,000 to 20,000 B.P.) during a gradual fall, dominated by deltaic systems, and a rapid transgressive phase (20,000 to 4000 B.P.). The Texas coast is now in another aggradational phase. Average rates of late Pleistocene sediment influx were similar to historic rates, and show a decrease in sediment production toward the arid southwest. Post-depositional deformation of the Beaumont and Lissie alluvial plains and Ingleside shoreline can be explained largely as an isostatic response to sedimentary loading

The Stuart City Trend in south Texas is a Lower Cretaceous shelf-edge buildup of bioclastic and reefal carbonates. This carbonate system is currently buried to depths of between 3,300 and 5,000 meters. Combined with the equivalent updip shallow water, shelf carbonates of the Edwards and Glen Rose Formations, these carbonates form an extensive Gulfward dipping carbonate wedge. The whole-rock chemical and isotopic characteristics of the limestones of the Stuart City are the product of their initial composition and early surface and near-surface diagenetic history. Burial diagenesis has not significantly altered the chemical and isotopic character of these limestones. Marine diagenesis was volumetrically important and consisted of micritization and the precipitation of fine to very coarsely crystalline, fibrous to bladed, isopachous, Mg-calcite cements. These cements have been neomorphically altered to calcite, while still retaining a Mg⁺⁺ memory and a marine-like isotopic character. Diagenesis by meteoric water was volumetrically important in altering the depositional character of the carbonate sediments associated with the topographic highs along the Stuart City Trend. Secondary porosity formation, Mg-calcite and aragonite stabilization and equant spar calcite cementation are important products of this diagenesis. The equant spar calcite cements are poor in iron and manganese. They make up approximately 16 percent by volume of the limestones studied. The majority of these cements have δ¹³C compositions which fall in the range of modern marine carbonates [...]. Oxygen isotopic variability of the equant spar calcites is controlled by the δ¹⁸O composition of the diagenetic fluids and the degree of openness of the carbonate sediments to these fluids. Thermally induced ¹⁸O depletion in the equant spar calcites was of secondary importance. Pyrobitumen pore fillings and inclusions in the outer one millimeter rims of the very coarsely crystalline, equant spar calcite cements indicate that only minor amounts of calcite cementation have occurred since hydrocarbon migration. These hydrocarbons are believed to have originated from Jurassic and Cretaceous source rocks. Deep burial diagenesis, i.e., post hydrocarbon migration, consisted of the precipitation of minor amounts of galena, fluorite and Sr⁺⁺-rich equant spar calcites. These diagenetic events can be directly related to the chemistry of present-day formation waters. The densities of sodium-calcium-chloride brines of the Edwards Formation and of the Stuart City Trend range from 1.018 grams per cm³ in the shallow, updip hydrocarbon fields to more than 1.21 grams per cm³ in the deepest hydrocarbon fields. The oxygen isotopic composition of the formation waters becomes increasingly enriched in ¹⁸O with increasing depth. Interaction of the formation waters with the carbonate country rock at elevated temperatures is responsible for this enrichment trend. The Mg⁺⁺/Ca⁺⁺ ratio of the formation waters increases with decreasing depth. Dedolomitization and dolomite dissolution are the major diagenetic processes responsible for Mg⁺⁺ enrichment. Movement of deeper basinal waters, potentially of Jurassic origin, into the Stuart City Trend and Edwards Formation is occurring via major faults

Sedimentation, growth fault slip, and shelf-margin progradation rates were determined for a transect of Tertiary sediments along the axis of the San Marcos arch in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico basin. This low relief area was the site of shorezone depositional systems throughout most of the Tertiary and has not been affected by salt mobilization or the sedimentological overprint of large delta systems. Consequently, rates calculated in the area represent average rather than extreme values. Detailed correlation of 142 well logs and the utilization of paleontologic data from 17 wells made possible the construction of a chronostratigraphic cross section which divided the Tertiary section into 1 or 2 million year increments. A decompaction computer program, which utilizes published compaction curves and distinguishes between normally pressured shale, underconsolidated overpressured shale, and sandstone, calculated original sediment thickness and sedimentation rates for each of the chronostratigraphic layers. Regional sedimentation rates varied almost two orders of magnitude during the Tertiary. These findings seriously challenge the common assumption of relatively uniform sediment supply over geological time spans. Within individual chronostratigraphic layers, sedimentation rates ranged from 4 cm/1000 yrs in the fluvial and transgressive facies to 130 cm/1000 yrs in the lower Miocene outer shelf and slope facies. Decompaction of the section also allowed the calculation of growth fault slip rates and of the percent increase in accommodation on the downthrown side of the faults relative to their upthrown equivalents. Slip rates during times of maximum movement ranged from 250-600 m/my, agreeing with rates calculated for salt dome growth. Percent increase in accommodation on the downthrown side of the faults ranged from 20-83%. Shelf-margin progradation rates were calculated and ranged from -1.5 mi/my (2.4 km/my) during brief times of temporary retrogradation (Queen City and Yegua Formations) to 17.5 mi/my (28.2 km/my) during the Early Miocene

The Upper Wilcox genetic sequence (UWGS) is a transgressively bounded unit that represents the last major progradational episode associated with Wilcox (Paleocene-Eocene) deposition in the Texas Gulf Coast basin. The UWGS includes at outcrop, the Sabinetown Formation, the Carrizo Formation and the lower Reklaw Formation, and in the subsurface it includes the upper part of the Middle Wilcox Subgroup, all of the Upper Wilcox Subgroup and the lower part of the Reklaw Formation. UWGS depositional systems in the Rio Grande embayment (South Texas) include two large but distinct delta complexes, the Rosita and Burgos deltas. The Rosita delta system contains the Duval, Massive, and Live Oak deltas which were fed by the Carrizo fluvial system. The Burgos delta system contains the Fandango and the Zapata deltas and was fed by an unnamed and unmapped fluvial system originating from northern Mexico. Depositional systems within the UWGS in the Houston embayment (East Texas) include two small delta systems, the Columbus and the Jasper, and an intervening strandplain system, the Harris. The Columbus delta was supplied by the Jewett fluvial system and the Jasper delta by an unnamed and unmapped fluvial system originating in Louisiana. UWGS deposition began following the transgression of the Lower Wilcox shelf margin and the deposition of a regional marine mudstone containing a maximum flooding surface (MFS). An influx of sediment from the west from the last pulse of the Laramide Orogeny (55ma) began deltaic progradation in the Rio Grande embayment. At approximately the same time, delta systems in the Houston embayment first prograded and then were transgressed as the trunk fluvial system shifted to the southwest. The resulting transgressive deposits include the Yoakum shale, which defines the top of the Sabinetown Formation. A fall in sea level at the end of the Yoakum/Sabinetown transgression extended the delta systems in the Rio Grande embayment to the shelf edge; the smaller delta systems in the Houston embayment shifted basinward. A slow relative rise followed as the systems in both embayments continued to prograde/aggrade and then were progressively transgressed. A transgressive shelf with isolated sands ('Atkinson' sands) developed over the drowned basin margin. The Bigford barrier/lagoon complex marked the maximum landward migration of the shoreline

Deposition on the Texas coastal plain and shelf during the last Pleistocene glacial cycle has been interpreted from topographic and bathymetric maps, from borehole data including results of a detailed drilling study in Brazoria County, and from offshore sparker-profiles. The stratigraphic unit deposited during the last glacial cycle is bounded above by a largely undissected topographic surface (Beaumont), and below by a buried paleosol of stiff gray clay that correlates offshore with a persistent seismic reflector. The lower Texas coastal plain is essentially a clay-rich alluvial plain made up of coalescing low-gradient fans. The Beaumont alluvial plain onlaps an older surface (Lissie) which was tilted seaward prior to Beaumont deposition; the Lissie in turn onlaps remnants of older surfaces. During Beaumont deposition, each major coastal river deposited a branching network of meanderbelt sand-bodies by repeated avulsions. Borehole data for a meanderbelt of the ancestral Brazos River indicate that the channel was 5 to 7 m deep but that substantially greater sand thicknesses developed by stacking of point-bar sequences during fluvial aggradation. Downdip transition of fluvial deposits into deltaic and paralic sediments is inferred from shell beds, strike-oriented sand bodies, beach ridges, changes in clay color, and clinoform reflectors on sparker profiles. The updip limit of marine influence is delineated by the distribution of shell beds; the downdip limit of deltaic pro gradation is indicated by a paleobathymetric break in slope. Strike-oriented sands (Ingleside), including barrier islands and strandplains, developed contemporaneously with Beaumont fluvial aggradation. Sand thicknesses and multiple levels of sand suggest that beach-shoreface sequences are multistoried, similar to the fluvial sands. The thickest and widest strike sands formed in bights between the larger, more prominent deltaic systems. In response to falling sea level, deltas prograded from the Ingleside shoreline to the shelf edge. Sparker profiles show that deltaic thicknesses and offshore slopes increased gradually during progradation, then rapidly near the shelf edge, where deltaic sequences became stacked or imbricated. Major growth faulting and salt flowage near the shelf break were associated with the thickest deposits. Between the large Colorado and Rio Grande delta systems, reefs grew near the shelf edge. Late Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations resulted in three depositional phases: an aggradational phase (ca. 120,000 B.P.) during late rise and stillstand, dominated by fluvial and strike systems; a progradational phase (100,000 to 20,000 B.P.) during a gradual fall, dominated by deltaic systems, and a rapid transgressive phase (20,000 to 4000 B.P.). The Texas coast is now in another aggradational phase. Average rates of late Pleistocene sediment influx were similar to historic rates, and show a decrease in sediment production toward the arid southwest. Post-depositional deformation of the Beaumont and Lissie alluvial plains and Ingleside shoreline can be explained largely as an isostatic response to sedimentary loading

The Stuart City Trend in south Texas is a Lower Cretaceous shelf-edge buildup of bioclastic and reefal carbonates. This carbonate system is currently buried to depths of between 3,300 and 5,000 meters. Combined with the equivalent updip shallow water, shelf carbonates of the Edwards and Glen Rose Formations, these carbonates form an extensive Gulfward dipping carbonate wedge. The whole-rock chemical and isotopic characteristics of the limestones of the Stuart City are the product of their initial composition and early surface and near-surface diagenetic history. Burial diagenesis has not significantly altered the chemical and isotopic character of these limestones. Marine diagenesis was volumetrically important and consisted of micritization and the precipitation of fine to very coarsely crystalline, fibrous to bladed, isopachous, Mg-calcite cements. These cements have been neomorphically altered to calcite, while still retaining a Mg⁺⁺ memory and a marine-like isotopic character. Diagenesis by meteoric water was volumetrically important in altering the depositional character of the carbonate sediments associated with the topographic highs along the Stuart City Trend. Secondary porosity formation, Mg-calcite and aragonite stabilization and equant spar calcite cementation are important products of this diagenesis. The equant spar calcite cements are poor in iron and manganese. They make up approximately 16 percent by volume of the limestones studied. The majority of these cements have δ¹³C compositions which fall in the range of modern marine carbonates [...]. Oxygen isotopic variability of the equant spar calcites is controlled by the δ¹⁸O composition of the diagenetic fluids and the degree of openness of the carbonate sediments to these fluids. Thermally induced ¹⁸O depletion in the equant spar calcites was of secondary importance. Pyrobitumen pore fillings and inclusions in the outer one millimeter rims of the very coarsely crystalline, equant spar calcite cements indicate that only minor amounts of calcite cementation have occurred since hydrocarbon migration. These hydrocarbons are believed to have originated from Jurassic and Cretaceous source rocks. Deep burial diagenesis, i.e., post hydrocarbon migration, consisted of the precipitation of minor amounts of galena, fluorite and Sr⁺⁺-rich equant spar calcites. These diagenetic events can be directly related to the chemistry of present-day formation waters. The densities of sodium-calcium-chloride brines of the Edwards Formation and of the Stuart City Trend range from 1.018 grams per cm³ in the shallow, updip hydrocarbon fields to more than 1.21 grams per cm³ in the deepest hydrocarbon fields. The oxygen isotopic composition of the formation waters becomes increasingly enriched in ¹⁸O with increasing depth. Interaction of the formation waters with the carbonate country rock at elevated temperatures is responsible for this enrichment trend. The Mg⁺⁺/Ca⁺⁺ ratio of the formation waters increases with decreasing depth. Dedolomitization and dolomite dissolution are the major diagenetic processes responsible for Mg⁺⁺ enrichment. Movement of deeper basinal waters, potentially of Jurassic origin, into the Stuart City Trend and Edwards Formation is occurring via major faults