What change does Raina notice in Bluntschli's appearance when she meets him for the second time?

When Raina first meets Bluntschli, he looks terrible, and presents a striking visual contrast with Sergius's heroic appearance in the portrait. The stage directions tell us he is unwashed and unkempt, and  

"…in a deplorable plight, bespattered with mud and blood and snow, his belt and the strap of his revolver-case keeping together the torn ruins of the blue tunic of a Servian artillery officer."

Furthermore, his nerves are on edge. He is starving and hasn't sleep for 48 hours. He is running from soldiers who intend to kill him. So this contributes to the visual impression he makes on Raina, and it isn't one that she would expect from a man worthy of her romantic interest.

Once she gets over her initial shock and distaste, she begins to show protective feelings towards him. She overcomes her prejudices, and when he tells her he is too dirty to take her hand, she even grants that he has the manners of a gentleman. At the end of the scene, when she finds him sleeping, she tells her mother to leave him alone:

Don't, mamma: the poor darling is worn out. Let him sleep.

So she has taken stock of his wretched appearance, and been touched by his vulnerabilities.

When Raina next sees Bluntschli, he is, according to the stage directions, "clean, well brushed, smartly uniformed, and out of trouble." She asks him about it, and he replies:

RAINA: You look ever so much nicer than when we last met. [He looks up, surprised]. What have you done to yourself?

BLUNTSCHLI. Washed; brushed; good night's sleep and breakfast. That's all.

Bluntschli is guilty of minimizing the crucial emotional differences -- what the stage directions called being "out of trouble." He is no longer under extreme stress, no longer running from death, no longer in hiding. He has freely chosen to come to this place, and for a romantic reason. As we learn later, he did so because he wanted to see Raina again. His changed emotional state and mood will have doubtless influenced his looks.

What are the difficulties in categorizing mental illness such as depression to constitute illnesses meriting sick leave compensation vis-à-vis...

Approximately one quarter of Americans have diagnosable mental illnesses each year, according to the National Alliance of Mental Illness. In addition, a large percentage of Americans report feeling workplace stress that could be alleviated by sick leave. However, the difficulty employees have being able to be compensated for mental health-related sick leave is that while the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects the rights of most employees with mental illness, getting protection under the law can be difficult. For example, if the employer makes "reasonable accommodations" for the employee, such as allowing them occasionally to work from home rather than taking sick leave, then the employer is fulfilling his or her responsibilities under the ADA. In addition, the ADA only requires the employer to provide accommodations for employees who can otherwise carry out the "essential functions" their jobs. As depression is a chronic condition, the employers might argue that the employees, even if diagnosed with depression, can do their jobs and do not need accommodations such as sick leave. If the employees need a long sick leave, employers also can argue that the employees cannot carry out the "essential functions" of their jobs and therefore are not qualified to be covered under the ADA. Therefore, it is more difficult for employees with conditions such as depression to get paid sick leave than employees with physical disorders or sicknesses. 

Does Shakespeare have only heroines and no heroes?

First, we need to think about the relationship between the notion of protagonist and "hero" or "heroine." The notion of a hero belongs to oral tradition and orally derived works, and is normally a relatively flat character, usually of noble background, that excels in distinctly gendered virtues, warlike prowess for men and family loyalty and self-sacrifice for women. The epic hero follows an arc that normally culminates in triumph. 

Tragic protagonists differ from epic heroes in being more three dimensional and in following a plot arc that declines from good to bad fortune due to a combination of bad choices, character flaws, and fate. Shakespeare, though, is a modern dramatist, and his protagonists do not follow the epic model. Comedy as a genre does not have heroes.

Many of the characters in Shakespeare follow the pattern of the tragic hero. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are strong aristocratic characters whose inherent flaws lead to their downfalls. Similarly, Othello, a brave and noble character whose jealousy, inflamed by the evil Iago, leads to his downfall, is a typical tragic hero. King Lear has heroic male and female characters as well as villains of both genders. Romeo and Juliet both follow similar narrative arcs of falling in love with each other and committing suicide. Thus if one uses the term "hero" as a literary term, meaning one conforming to the Aristotelian model of the tragic hero, Shakespeare's plays do have "heroes." Shakespeare's plays, not being epics, do not have epic heroes, and not being 21st century comic books or movies, do not have the comic book types of flat "good" superheroes who triumph over equally flat cartoon villains. 

Why do we still study Shakespeare?

Shakespeare’s works are timeless.  After four hundred years, people still read, study, and perform his plays and poetry.  Almost anyone can quote from several of his works.  The reason that people know them is because they have been a part of our culture constantly since they were published.

It is important to study Shakespeare because it is a part of popular culture.  Popular culture refers to movies, television, and songs.  Have you heard Taylor Swift’s song “Love Story” on the radio, which references Romeo and Juliet?  Does your city have Shakespeare in the Park in the summer?  Did you know that the band in the Harry Potter series is called the Weird Sisters, after the characters in Macbeth?  I’ll bet you have heard comparisons of one’s love “to a summer’s day.”  Shakespeare is everywhere.  If you don’t study Shakespeare, you will miss these references.  You won’t enjoy them or appreciate them, and you won’t understand them.

The greatest reason to study Shakespeare is that there is a reason it is still popular.  The stories’ themes are timeless.   These are tales of young love, madness, family drama, aging, ambition, murder, and intrigue.  Shakespeare’s poetry is clever and beautiful.  His plays cover multiple genres.  When you read and study the plays, you have a greater appreciation for them.  There are so many works, and they have so much to offer.

What was the backdrop against which Saki wrote "Sredni Vashtar"?

Saki wrote Sredni Vashtar against the backdrop of Edwardian bourgeois or upper-class society. As a well-known satirist, Saki (or Hector Hugh Munro) mercilessly lampooned aunts and female guardians in his stories. 

As such, the aunts in both The Lumber Room and Sredni Vashtar were unequivocally punished for their self-righteous despotism against their young charges. In Sredni Vashtar, as in The Lumber Room, Saki critiqued the hypocritical, hierarchical, and dysfunctional world of Edwardian upper-class society. Then, children were often seen as a trial to be equally endured and subdued; at the same time, they were deprived of personal agency and the ability to enjoy individual liberties.

Perhaps Saki's own background may have had something to do with his portrayal of female guardians in his stories. At the age of two, with the premature death of his mother, Saki was sent by his father to live with his aunts. They were strict, humorless, and puritanical in their approach to raising children. So, Saki wrote Sredni Vashtar against the backdrop of Edwardian high society and highlighted the helpless child's world of isolation and oppression amidst the grandeur of affluence and moral decay.

In Sredni Vashtar, animals join forces with the young male protagonist, Conradin, to outwit and defeat an implacable mutual enemy, Mrs. De Ropp. The story ends in typical Saki-inspired, macabre fashion: Mrs. de Ropp is murdered by Sredni Vashtar, the formidable polecat-ferret, Conradin's pagan god of deliverance. In the story, it can be seen that Saki highlights the childish potential for brutal vengeance and satirizes the Edwardian preoccupation with the superiority of adults over children.

Explain briefly the functions of the bile duct and the pancreatic juice.

The bile duct is a tube-like structure which carries a digestive juice called bile from the liver and then joins another duct, called the pancreatic duct, that carries pancreatic juice and forms the ampulla of Vater. The contents of both ducts (bile and pancreatic juice) are now discharged into the first part of the intestine called the duodenum through the ampulla of vater.

The pancreatic juice contains enzymes which play a significant role in the digestion of food. The enzymes in the pancreatic juice are responsible for the partial or complete breakdown of carbohydrates, proteins and fat.

One of such enzymes called the pancreatic amylase completes the digestion of carbohydrates. Another enzyme contained in pancreatic juice called lipase is responsible for the breakdown of fat. Two other enzymes contained in pancreatic juice are referred to as trypsin and chymotrypsin. They complete the digestion of proteins.

How would you describe the musical quality of "The Brook" by Alfred Lord Tennyson?

Tennyson's "The Brook" has a musical quality that imitates a flowing stream. The alternating lines rhyme, creating a musical sense, and many of the words that end the lines are repeated, such as "flow" and "go." The repetition of words and rhymes creates the lyrical quality of a brook that is constantly running and that has a repetitive quality in the sound of its water moving downstream. 

In addition, the lines in the poem are very short, running to three or four syllables rather than to the ten syllables that many of the poems used at the time. This creates the kinds of quickly moving sounds that a brook might make as it tumbles downstream. In addition, many of the lines in the poem use alliteration, or the repetition of sounds at the beginning of words, such as "sudden sally" and "men may." These sounds imitate the rushing sound of water in the brook.