renal cyst Any of several types of cysts in the kidneys. Some are present at birth; others are caused by tubular obstruction. Large cysts can cause backaches and a dragging sensation. Multiple cysts occur as a result of various disorders, including kidney vascular diseases, lymphatic vessel
A remora (Echeneis naucrates) and its host, a leopard shark.
DOUGLAS FAULKNER
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renal failure ► reovirus I 1607
blockage, congenital diseases, and tapeworm infestation. The most seri¬ ous is medullary cystic disease, which has no warning symptoms but causes anemia, low blood sodium levels, and uremia. The kidneys become shrunken, grainy, and scarred. Cysts should usually be checked surgically to rule out cancer. See also urogenital malformation.
renal failure See kidney failure renal system See urinary system
Renan \ra-'na n V (Joseph-) Ernest (b. Feb. 28, 1823, Treguier, France—d. Oct. 2, 1892, Paris)
French philosopher, historian, and scholar of religion. He trained for the priesthood but left the Catholic church in 1845, feeling that its teach¬ ings were incompatible with the findings of historical criticism, though he retained a quasi-Christian faith in God. His five-volume His¬ tory of the Origins of Christianity (1863-80) includes his Life of Jesus (1863); an attempt to reconstruct the mind of Jesus as a wholly human person, it was virulently denounced by the church but widely read by the general public. His later works include the series History of the People of Israel (1888-96).
renga \'req-,ga\ Japanese linked- verse poetry in which two or more poets supply alternating sections of a poem. The form began with the composition of a traditional five-line poem (tanka) by two people. A popular pastime from ancient times, even in remote rural areas, it developed fully in the 15th century. Composition spread to court poets, who drew up “codes” to establish renga as an art. An example of renga is the melancholy Minase sangin hyakuin (1488), composed by Iio Sogi, Shohaku, and Socho. Later the initial verse ( hokku ) of a renga developed into the haiku form.
Reni \'ra-ne\, Guido (b. Nov. 4, 1575, Bologna, Papal States—d. Aug. 18, 1642, Bologna) Italian painter. Apprenticed to the Flemish painter Denis Calvaert at 10, he was later influenced by the novel naturalism of the Carracci family of his native Bologna, the frescoes of Raphael, and ancient Greco-Roman sculpture. He executed many important commis¬ sions in Rome, including the celebrated ceiling fresco Aurora (1613-14). In his religious and mythological works, he tempered Baroque exuber¬ ance and complexity with Classical restraint, tender emotion, and delicate colouring. Until John Ruskin scorned him in the 19th century, he was highly regarded; his status as one of the great painters of the 17th cen¬ tury has since been reestablished.
Renner, Karl (b. Dec. 14, 1870, Unter-Tannowitz, Bohemia, Austria- Hungary—d. Dec. 31, 1950, Doebling, Austria) Austrian chancellor (1918-20, 1945) and president (1945-50). A lawyer, he served in the Reichsrat (lower house) from 1907. He became the first chancellor of the new Austrian republic in 1918 but was unable to prevent territorial losses at the end of World War I. In the 1920s he led the right wing of the Social Democratic Party and in 1938 favoured the Anschluss with Germany. In 1945 he worked to reestablish Austrian home rule and was elected presi¬ dent of the republic. He wrote numerous works on government and law.
Rennes Vren\ City (pop., 1999: 206,229), western France. Located at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers, Rennes was once under Roman occupation. It was the capital of Brittany in the Middle Ages and a rival of Nantes. It was the seat of the Brittany parliament from 1561 to 1675. Rennes was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1720 and was rebuilt. It was bombed and partly destroyed in World War II. It is a com¬ mercial and industrial city, producing railway equipment, automobiles, and chemicals. It is also the cultural centre of Brittany.
Rennie, John (b. June 7, 1761, Phantassie, East Lothian, Scot.—d. Oct. 4, 1821, London, Eng.) Scottish civil engineer. He built three bridges across the Thames at London: Waterloo Bridge (since replaced), the old Southwark Bridge (1814-19), and the New London Bridge (completed 1831 and since replaced). He worked on extensive drainage projects in the Lincolnshire fens; built the London and East India docks on the
Thames; improved naval dockyards at Plymouth, Portsmouth, Chatham, and Sheerness; and began the great breakwater that shelters Plymouth Sound.
Reno Yre-no\ City (pop., 2000: 180,480), western Nevada, U.S. It is located on the Truckee River, near the California border, Lake Tahoe, and the Sierra Nevada foothills. Until 1900 it was primarily a distribution point, but, after several well-known people were granted divorces or were quickly married there under liberal state laws, it became famous as a busy divorce and marriage centre. It is also a year-round vacation centre. When gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931, Reno began to attract tour¬ ists to its many casinos.
Renoir, Jean (b. Sept. 15, 1894, Paris, France—d. Feb. 12, 1979, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.) French film director. The son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, he discovered a passion for the cinema while recovering from wounds suffered in World War I. He directed his first film, La Fille de Teau, in 1924. His films, in both silent and later eras, were noted for their deep appreciation for the unpre¬ dictability of human character. He cowrote the screenplays for many of his films, including Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932), Madame Bovary (1934), The Crime of Mon¬ sieur Lange (1936), and La Bete humaine (1938) as well as his two masterpieces, Grand Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939).
He lived in the U.S. (1940-51), where he directed The Southerner (1945), The Diary of a Chamber¬ maid (1946), and The River (1951).
Renoir \r9n-'war\, Pierre-Auguste (b. Feb. 25, 1841, Limoges, France—d. Dec. 3, 1919, Cagnes) French painter. His father, a tailor in Limoges, moved with his large family to Paris in 1844. Renoir began work¬ ing as a decorator of porcelain at 13 and studied painting at night. He formed a close friendship with his fellow student Claude Monet and became a leading member of the Paris Impressionists. His early works were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling colour and light. By using small, multicoloured strokes, Renoir evoked the vibration of the atmosphere, the sparkling effect of foliage, and especially the luminosity of a young woman’s skin in the outdoors. Because of his fascination with the human figure, he was distinctive among the others, who were more inter¬ ested in landscape. Among his early masterpieces are Le Moulin de la Gal- ette (1876) and The Luncheon of the Boating Party (1881). A visit to Italy (1881-82) introduced him to Raphael and the expressive force of clear line and smooth painting, and by the mid 1880s he had broken with Impres¬ sionism to employ a more disciplined, formal technique. In works such as Bathers (1884-87), he emphasized volume, form, contours, and line. In his later works, he departed from the strict rules of Classicism to paint colour¬ ful still lifes, portraits, nudes, and landscapes of southern France, where he settled in 1907. Rheumatism confined him to a wheelchair by 1912 but he never ceased to paint, even though often with his brush attached to his hand. The filmmaker Jean Renoir was his son.
rent In common usage, payment made in return for the right to use prop¬ erty belonging to another. In classical economics, rent was the income gained from cultivated or improved land after the deduction of all pro¬ duction costs. In modern economic usage, rent is the difference between the total return to a factor of production (land, labour, capital) and its sup¬ ply price, the minimum amount necessary to attain its services. Rent plus opportunity cost make up the total income paid to a productive resource. Efforts made by a resource owner to obtain monopoly profit is considered rent-seeking behaviour.