title: Nystagmus

text: Nystagmus can be caused by subsequent foveation of moving objects, pathology, sustained rotation or substance use. Nystagmus is not to be confused with other superficially similar-appearing disorders of eye movements (saccadic oscillations) such as opsoclonus or ocular flutter that are composed purely of fast-phase (saccadic) eye movements, while nystagmus is characterized by the combination of a smooth pursuit, which usually acts to take the eye off the point of focus, interspersed with the saccadic movement that serves to bring the eye back on target. Without the use of objective recording techniques, it may be very difficult to distinguish among these conditions.


title: Nystagmus

text: In medicine, the presence of nystagmus can be benign, or it can indicate an underlying visual or neurological problem.


title: Nystagmus

text: Pathological nystagmus is characterized by "excessive drifts of stationary retinal images that degrades vision and may produce illusory motion of the seen world: oscillopsia (an exception is congenital nystagmus)".


title: Nystagmus

text: When nystagmus occurs without fulfilling its normal function, it is pathologic (deviating from the healthy or normal condition). Pathological nystagmus is the result of damage to one or more components of the vestibular system, including the semicircular canals, otolith organs, and the vestibulocerebellum.


title: Nystagmus

text: Pathological nystagmus generally causes a degree of vision impairment, although the severity of such impairment varies widely. Also, many blind people have nystagmus, which is one reason that some wear dark glasses.


title: Nystagmus

text: Physiological nystagmus is a form of involuntary eye movement that is part of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), characterized by alternating smooth pursuit in one direction and saccadic movement in the other direction.


title: Nystagmus

text: The direction of nystagmus is defined by the direction of its quick phase (e.g. a right-beating nystagmus is characterized by a rightward-moving quick phase, and a left-beating nystagmus by a leftward-moving quick phase). The oscillations may occur in the vertical, horizontal or torsional planes, or in any combination. The resulting nystagmus is often named as a gross description of the movement, e.g. downbeat nystagmus, upbeat nystagmus, seesaw nystagmus, periodic alternating nystagmus.


title: Nystagmus

text: These descriptive names can be misleading, however, as many were assigned historically, solely on the basis of subjective clinical examination, which is not sufficient to determine the eyes' true trajectory.


title: Nystagmus

text: Congenital nystagmus has long been viewed as untreatable, but medications have been discovered that show promise in some patients. In 1980, researchers discovered that a drug called baclofen could stop periodic alternating nystagmus. Subsequently, gabapentin, an anticonvulsant, led to improvement in about half the patients who took it. Other drugs found to be effective against nystagmus in some patients include memantine, levetiracetam, 3,4-diaminopyridine (available in the US to eligible patients with downbeat nystagmus at no cost under an expanded access program), 4-aminopyridine, and acetazolamide. Several therapeutic approaches, such as contact lenses, drugs, surgery, and low vision rehabilitation have also been proposed. For example, it has been proposed that mini-telescopic eyeglasses suppress nystagmus.


title: Nystagmus

text: Surgical treatment of congenital nystagmus is aimed at improving head posture, simulating artificial divergence, or weakening the horizontal recti muscles. Clinical trials of a surgery to treat nystagmus (known as tenotomy) concluded in 2001. Tenotomy is now being performed regularly at numerous centres around the world. The surgery aims to reduce the eye oscillations, which in turn tends to improve visual acuity.


title: Nystagmus

text: Acupuncture tests have produced conflicting evidence on its beneficial effects on the symptoms of nystagmus. Benefits have been seen in treatments in which acupuncture points of the neck were used, specifically points on the sternocleidomastoid muscle. Benefits of acupuncture for treatment of nystagmus include a reduction in frequency and decreased slow phase velocities, which led to an increase in foveation duration periods both during and after treatment. By the standards of evidence-based medicine, the quality of these studies is poor (for example, Ishikawa's study had sample size of six subjects, was unblinded, and lacked proper controls), and given high quality studies showing that acupuncture has no effect beyond placebo, the results of these studies have to be considered clinically irrelevant until higher quality studies are performed.


title: Nystagmus

text: Physical or occupational therapy is also used to treat nystagmus. Treatment consists of learning strategies to compensate for the impaired system.


title: Nystagmus

text: A Cochrane Review on interventions for eye movement disorders due to acquired brain injury, updated in June 2017, identified three studies of pharmacological interventions for acquired nystagmus but concluded that these studies provided insufficient evidence to guide treatment choices.


title: Nystagmus

text: Nystagmus is a relatively common clinical condition, affecting one in several thousand people. A survey conducted in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom found that by the age of two, one in every 670 children had manifested nystagmus. Authors of another study in the United Kingdom estimated an incidence of 24 in 10,000 (c. 0.240%), noting an apparently higher rate amongst white Europeans than in individuals of Asian origin.


title: Nystagmus

text: In the United States, testing for "horizontal gaze nystagmus" is one of a battery of field sobriety tests used by police officers to determine whether a suspect is driving under the influence of alcohol. The test involves observation of the suspect's pupil as it follows a moving object, noting


title: Nystagmus

text: The horizontal gaze nystagmus test has been highly criticized and major errors in the testing methodology and analysis found. However, the validity of the horizontal gaze nystagmus test for use as a field sobriety test for persons with a blood alcohol level between 0.04 and 0.08 is supported by peer reviewed studies and has been found to be a more accurate indication of blood alcohol content than other standard field sobriety tests.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Red Bull, the other being Red Bull Racing. Toro Rosso functioned as a junior team to Red Bull Racing, with the aim of developing the skills of promising drivers for the senior team. The team made its racing début in the season, moving to complete independence from its sister team in . The team changed its name to Scuderia AlphaTauri in to promote parent company Red Bull's fashion label of the same name.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team was established after Paul Stoddart sold his remaining interest in the Minardi team at the end of 2005 to Red Bull's owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, and Minardi was renamed Toro Rosso.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Mateschitz subsequently struck a 50/50 joint-ownership deal with former Formula One driver Gerhard Berger before the start of the season. In late November 2008, Red Bull regained total ownership of Toro Rosso after buying back Berger's share of the team.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: From to , Toro Rosso used Ferrari V8 engines, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from at the end of 2006 to switch engine builders to Renault. For , Toro Rosso switched to Renault engines as well, but in returned to using Ferrari power. However, they switched back to Renault in (albeit under 'Toro Rosso' branding), then in to Honda. The team principal was Franz Tost, formerly of BMW's motor sport division.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Vitantonio Liuzzi scored the team's first point in its first season at the 2006 United States Grand Prix. The team's first podium and only pole position and victory were scored by Sebastian Vettel at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen became the youngest driver to compete in Formula One, at 17 years and 166 days old, in a Toro Rosso at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Minardi had competed in Formula One from 1985 to 2005. Despite having a large fan base, it had been one of the least competitive teams in the sport, never achieving a podium finish and only finishing as high as fourth in three races.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Minardi owner Paul Stoddart claimed to have had 41 approaches to buy the team, but preferred to sell it to someone who could 'take it further' than he could and who would maintain it in its traditional base in Italy. Included in the terms of the deal with Red Bull GmbH was the clause that the team must keep its headquarters in Faenza, Italy until at least the season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Whilst Red Bull abandoned the Minardi name in line with their own sponsorship and marketing plans, the use of the Italian language in the name was intended to hint at the team's Italian heritage. Red Bull changed the name of the team immediately after taking control of the team on 1 November 2005. It was initially reported as 'Squadra Toro Rosso' ("team Red Bull") but then changed because "squadra" in Italian depicts a 'squad' like a football team, to 'Scuderia Toro Rosso'. "Scuderia" is Italian for a stable reserved for racing horses, and is also commonly applied to Italian motor racing teams, such as Ferrari.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Many Minardi fans were upset by the name change to Scuderia Toro Rosso and over 15,000 signed an online petition to keep the Minardi name, but were unsuccessful.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed were the 2006 race drivers of the STR1, with Neel Jani filling the test/third driver role. Liuzzi had raced part-time for Red Bull Racing in 2005, while Speed entered F1 following the Red Bull Driver Search in the United States. Jani was the test driver for Sauber Petronas in 2004.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The 2006 chassis was a modified version of the 2005 Red Bull Racing RB1. Some teams felt that this infringed the Concorde Agreement as each team is expected to design their own car. Toro Rosso claim that this design was originally produced during 2004 by Jaguar Racing, Red Bull's predecessor, and that the intellectual rights had belonged to the Ford Motor Company, Jaguar Racing's parent company before passing to Toro Rosso.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team used Minardi's contracted supply of rev limited and air restricted 2005-spec Cosworth TJ2005-2 3.0-litre V10 engines instead of newly-built Cosworth CA2006 2.4-litre V8 engines as CA2006 engines were too expensive for smaller teams. This concession had been granted to assist less well funded teams by avoiding the cost of sourcing a new supply of V8 engines as required by the 2006 regulations. The continuation of this arrangement after the Red Bull takeover caused friction with other teams, in particular Super Aguri and Midland who felt that the engine conferred too much of an advantage. They contended that the concession to allow the team use a V10 engine was based on Minardi's poor financial situation, and should not have continued to apply after the team achieved a completely different financial footing. For tyre suppliers, Toro Rosso was reunited with Michelin tyres who last time collaborated with Faenza-based Minardi Formula One team in 2001 and 2002 seasons.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: As the season progressed, the Toro Rossos began to struggle in qualifying as their competitors developed their new V8 engines to rev closer to 20,000 rpm to get more power. To try to balance the playing field, Toro Rosso asked for an extra 500 rpm for qualifying, however the FIA permitted them only 300 rpm.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: For the 2007 season, Toro Rosso began using the 2006-specification Ferrari 056 V8 engine rather than 2007 works spec due to cost reasons, taking over the contract that their senior team broke from by switching to customer Renault power.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the launch of the STR2 on 13 February, Toro Rosso confirmed Liuzzi as a 2007 driver. In testing in Bahrain on 24 February, Scott Speed was confirmed as the team's second driver. Four-time Champ Car champion Sébastien Bourdais was an occasional test driver several times during the season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team appointed new technical director Giorgio Ascanelli to replace temporary stand-in Alex Hitzinger on 2 April.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The 2007 season was generally disappointing, with poor reliability and driver errors leading to a low finishing record. Following the , Speed was dropped under controversial circumstances and was replaced by BMW Sauber development driver Sebastian Vettel who was later confirmed for .


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the , Toro Rosso scored their best results, with Vettel finishing fourth and Vitantonio Liuzzi sixth, scoring eight points for the team. These were also the drivers' best finishes in Formula One to that point. It was a marked improvement over the preceding , where Vettel crashed into Mark Webber's Red Bull under safety car conditions while they were running second and third respectively, and Liuzzi lost a potential point after a 25-second penalty for overtaking Adrian Sutil's Spyker for eighth under waved yellow flags dropped him to ninth.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: With the 2008 Concorde Agreement outlawing customer cars from onwards, Dietrich Mateschitz put the Toro Rosso team up for sale in March 2008. He aimed to secure a buyer by the end of , while the team continued in its present guise until then.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Scuderia Toro Rosso's drivers for 2008 were Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais. The team continue to utilize 2007-spec Ferrari engines in 2008. Bourdais earned his first career points with a 7th-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix. Vettel scored his first points of the season with a 5th-place finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. The team showed steady improvement throughout the season, leading up to a solid performance at the Belgian Grand Prix which saw both cars running in the top six for most of the race, and with Bourdais and Vettel running 3rd and 4th respectively on the final lap until cars on tyres better suited to the extreme wet conditions passed them, demoting Vettel to 5th and Bourdais to 7th. The double points finish moved STR above Honda and level with Williams in the Constructors' Championship.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team pulled off a massive shock at the wet Italian Grand Prix, with Vettel claiming a first pole position and the first win for both himself and the team. This was the first win by a team based in Italy other than Ferrari since the 1957 German Grand Prix, which was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in a Maserati and also the first and only win for a Ferrari engine in a customer chassis. Vettel beat second-place Heikki Kovalainen by 12 seconds. Vettel was at it again in the next race, the Singapore Grand Prix, Formula One's first ever night race. Vettel qualified 7th and finished the race in 5th, while Bourdais could only manage 12th.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the next race in Japan, Vettel again showed his class finishing 6th. Bourdais, meanwhile, was doing well, until Felipe Massa, who had been running in 8th, tried to overtake Bourdais. Massa had climbed up to 8th place after having dropped down to 13th as a result of his drive-through and his first pit-stop. Just after Bourdais left the pitlane after making his final stop, Massa attempted to pass him and the two cars collided at the first corner. Massa spun, but rejoined the track and eventually finished 8th. Bourdais finished the race in 6th place, but had 25 seconds added to his overall time as penalty for the incident, dropping him down to 10th place. This ultimately had the effect of promoting Massa to 7th place, and giving him an extra championship point. It was a controversial penalty, and Bourdais was adamant that he was not to blame.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Vettel's performances earned him a place at the senior Red Bull team for 2009. However, his final drive for Toro Rosso saw him almost play a crucial role in the world championship decider in Brazil. In mixed conditions, Lewis Hamilton needed 5th place to clinch the championship, and was running in this position when he was overtaken by Vettel with two laps remaining. Unable to keep up, Hamilton dropped back, and only took the title when he and Vettel both overtook Timo Glock on the final lap.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: In the end, Vettel scored 35 of the team's 39 points, and in doing so, helped Toro Rosso to actually outperform their senior Red Bull team for the first and only time in team history.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: With Vettel moving to Red Bull Racing replacing the retired David Coulthard, Sébastien Buemi and Sébastien Bourdais led the team's assault in the 2009 World Championship. After the previous year's success, several drivers wanted to drive for Toro Rosso, including Takuma Sato (who even did three tests with the team) and Bruno Senna. Toro Rosso unveiled their new car last of all the teams taking part in the 2009 season, on 9 March 2009. Before the season started, the team's boss Franz Tost said that it would be "difficult" to do as well as they did in the season. On 16 July 2009, the team announced that Sébastien Bourdais' contract was to be terminated with immediate effect due to disappointing results. On 20 July 2009, the team announced that Jaime Alguersuari would replace him as official driver for the rest of the season. Multiple WRC Champion Sébastien Loeb had been quoted in the French sports-paper L'Equipe as being interested in replacing Bourdais. It had been stated that Loeb would not be available to race in F1 until after the end of the WRC season. He would've been available to make his F1 début at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in November. However, this was not to be as the FIA denied him a super licence which is required to drive in Formula One. The season ended with Toro Rosso finishing in tenth and last place in the championship after being overtaken by Force India after their podium finish in Belgium. However, Toro Rosso's form picked up towards the end of the season with Sébastien Buemi scoring points in the final two races. However, Jaime Alguersuari failed to score any points in the season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Scuderia Toro Rosso confirmed that they would keep Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari, in the hope of achieving better results. On 10 November 2009, Toro Rosso announced that Sébastien Buemi would continue to race for them in 2010. No official announcement of the second driver had been made up to then, however Jaime Alguersuari was reported to take the second race seat, as published on 26 November 2009. On 22 January 2010, the team confirmed the signing of Alguersuari, and he scored the first points of his career by finishing ninth under the new points system at the . He finished tenth in Spain scoring a point thanks to Lewis Hamilton's penultimate lap crash. He also received a drive-through penalty in that race. At the next race in Monaco Buemi finished 11th and Alguersuari 12th, the last two runners at the end of the race. However, when Michael Schumacher received a 20-second penalty for a last turn overtake against Fernando Alonso, Buemi was moved up to tenth, scoring a point.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were confirmed as drivers of the team's STR6 for 2011, Daniel Ricciardo would be the team's reserve and test driver, and would also take part in free practice at each of the Grands Prix. The STR6 was launched on 1 February in Valencia, Spain.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the beginning of the season in Australia, Buemi finished eighth and collected four championship points. The saw no points while China saw both cars in the top 10 for qualifying, Alguersuari in seventh and Buemi in tenth. However Alguersuari turned out to be the race's only retirement and Buemi finished way down the field. Turkey saw Buemi finishing ninth while Spain was another bad race for the team with Alguersuari again failing to score. Monaco saw Buemi in the points in tenth, ahead of Nico Rosberg whilst Alguersuari crashed out along with Vitaly Petrov in an incident that brought out the red flag to the race. In Canada, Alguersuari finished eighth, helped out by the retirements of Adrian Sutil, Nick Heidfeld and Paul di Resta. Buemi also finished in tenth for the team's first double score since the 2009 Australian Grand Prix when Buemi was seventh ahead of Sébastien Bourdais.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: In the , Alguersuari scored a point with a tenth-place finish while Buemi collided with di Resta, which forced his retirement from the race. Neither driver finished in the points in Germany, but both drivers picked up points in Hungary; Buemi came from 23rd on the grid to finish eighth while Alguersuari added another point to his tally with tenth place. At the , Alguersuari qualified sixth, but retired on the first lap after contact with Bruno Senna. Buemi also retired after contact with Sergio Pérez. Both drivers picked up points at Monza, with Alguersuari a career-best seventh and Buemi tenth. In Singapore, Buemi finished 12th and Alguersuari was classified 21st after crashing in the closing stages.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the , Alguersuari finished in fifteenth position, while Buemi retired with a loose tyre. The saw the team qualify in eleventh and thirteenth places. Due to their car's high straight-line speed, Buemi picked up points with ninth, while Alguersuari overtook Rosberg's Mercedes on the final lap to take the team's best race result in 2011, of seventh place. Alguersuari added an eighth place in India, while Buemi retired. In Abu Dhabi, Alguersuari again finished down in fifteenth; meanwhile Buemi had his third retirement in four races. Both drivers finished outside the points at the season-ending in eleventh and twelfth places.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 14 December 2011, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne would drive for the team in 2012, replacing Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari. Team principal Franz Tost later stated that the team had the make-up of a "rookie training school", with the prospect of bringing new talent to the team. After scoring points in the opening two rounds, Toro Rosso could not manage to maintain that pace and failed to finish in the points until the 12th race of the season, the Belgian Grand Prix.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 6 September 2012, it was announced that James Key had joined the team as Technical Director, replacing Giorgio Ascanelli.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Despite some better results in the final races, Toro Rosso suffered a poor season which saw the team finish in ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, only ahead of Caterham, Marussia and HRT.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 31 October 2012, it was confirmed that Toro Rosso would retain its drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Éric Vergne for the 2013 season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team did not make the start they wanted at the after Vergne finished 12th and Ricciardo retired due to an exhaust problem. However, at the , Vergne managed to score the team's first point of the season with a respectable 10th place, while Ricciardo retired in 18th due to another exhaust problem. At the however, Ricciardo's fortunes turned around as he managed to finish in a career best 7th place while Vergne could only finish 12th. At the , Vergne suffered a puncture and had to retire from the race and Ricciardo finished 16th and ultimately a lap down. In Spain, Ricciardo managed to score another point via a 10th place but still a lap down while Vergne collided and ultimately had to retire from the race. In Monaco, fortunes turned around for Vergne as he managed to finish an impressive 8th and score 4 points while Ricciardo, like his teammate in Spain, suffered a collision and had to retire from the race.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The saw the team take their best qualifying result since the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix, with Vergne qualifying seventh and Ricciardo tenth on the grid in wet conditions. Vergne finished the race in sixth place picking up 8 points, Toro Rosso's best result since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Red Bull driver Mark Webber announced he was to retire from Formula One at the end of the season, leaving a vacant seat at Toro Rosso's sister team. Both drivers were in the hunt for a drive with the most dominant team in Formula One at the time. At the next race in Britain, Daniel Ricciardo qualified 5th place on the grid, which he converted into an 8th-place finish in the race. Vergne retired after suffering a puncture 35 laps in while running in the points. Ricciardo continued his form into Germany where he qualified 6th with teammate Vergne struggling in 16th. Ricciardo just missed out on points in 12th while Vergne retired on lap 22.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: In Hungary both cars were out of the points and in qualifying for the 2013 Belgian Grand Prix, both cars went out in Q1, starting 18th and 19th—the team's worst qualifying performance of the year. However, Ricciardo bounced back to take 10th and looked set for a move to Red Bull in 2014. Vergne came 12th for the second race in a row.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Before the following race in Italy it was announced that Ricciardo would replace Webber at Red Bull for the season. Ricciardo impressed his future employers with a strong 7th position in qualifying while teammate Vergne started 10th with a mistake in Q3 ruining his chancing of improving on his previous time. In the race, Ricciardo picked up more points with 7th to take 13th place in the Drivers' Championship from Vergne who retired on lap 14.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: During the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix weekend it was announced Toro Rosso had signed a long-term customer agreement with Renault to use their engines from 2014. On 21 October 2013, it was announced that Jean-Éric Vergne would remain with the team for a third successive season, and will be partnered by Daniil Kvyat, who was a race-winner in the GP3 Series and the FIA European Formula 3 Championship in 2013.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team made an impressive start at the with Vergne qualifying 6th, Toro Rosso's best qualifying result since the 2013 British Grand Prix and Kvyat qualifying 8th. The drivers finished the race 8th and 9th respectively to score Toro Rosso's first points of the season, and his result, Kvyat had broken Sebastian Vettel's record as the youngest points scorer in Formula One history. At the , Vergne qualified 9th while Kvyat qualified 11th. The race was going well for them until on lap 18, Vergne suffered a power unit failure in his car, which has been a common occurrence in Renault powered cars at that point in the season. Meanwhile, Kvyat finished 10th and scored 1 point but was ultimately a lap down from the race winner.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the , both Vergne and Kvyat qualified well down the field in 13th and 14th; Kvyat finished 11th while Vergne retired due to a collision. At the next race in China, Vergne qualified 9th and Kvyat 13th, but Kvyat was able to score a point in 10th place. At the , Kvyat once again qualified 13th while Vergne started 16th. Kvyat finished 14th, a lap down from the race winner while Vergne retired from the race due to an exhaust problem. At the , both cars qualified in the top ten, as Vergne was seventh while Kvyat qualified in ninth. However, with exhaust ailments inflicting both cars, neither driver was able to finish the race. At the , Vergne started 8th while Kvyat qualified in 15th; Vergne finished where he started, while Kvyat retired due to a driveshaft failure.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the , Kvyat took his best qualifying position with 7th, while Vergne lined up from 15th position. The team suffered another double retirement, as Vergne retired due to an issue with his brakes, while Kvyat was sidelined with a suspension problem. At the , both cars once again qualified in the top ten, with Kvyat ninth and Vergne tenth. For the first time since Australia, both drivers scored points, as both Kvyat and Vergne finished precisely where they started. At the , Kvyat qualified eighth, five places ahead of his teammate. Vergne finished the race in 13th, while Kvyat retired from the race, after his car caught fire. At the , Vergne qualified 8th and Kvyat qualified 11th, with Vergne picking up 2 points for 9th position. Kvyat finished 14th, a lap down from race winner Daniel Ricciardo.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: One week prior to the , Toro Rosso announced the signing of then 16-year-old Max Verstappen to replace Vergne at the conclusion of the 2014 season to be partnered with Kvyat – meaning that Vergne would be without a seat with the team. In Belgium, Kvyat qualified 11th and Vergne qualified 12th, with Kvyat collecting 2 points after finishing 9th, while Vergne just missed out on the final points position, in 11th. At the team's home race in Italy, Kvyat once again outqualified Vergne, starting 11th to Vergne's 13th. Both drivers finished the race in the same position in which they started. At the , Kvyat lined up 10th while Vergne was 12th. Despite receiving a 5-second penalty for exceeding track limits, Vergne finished the race in 6th place, Kvyat finished in 14th place. At the , Vergne outqualified Kvyat as they started 11th and 13th respectively, and Vergne scored more points with a 9th-place finish, while Kvyat was just outside the points in 11th. Just before this race, Red Bull announced that Sebastian Vettel would leave their team at the conclusion of the season, and that Kvyat would be promoted to the senior team – giving Vergne a renewed chance to fight for his seat with Toro Rosso for the remainder of the season. Among the candidates being considered for the second seat were Vergne, as well as Red Bull Junior Team drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Pierre Gasly – who finished first and second in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series – and Alex Lynn, the GP3 Series champion.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Fortunes improved significantly for Kvyat as he qualified 5th for his home race in Russia, while Vergne qualified 10th. Both drivers finished outside the points, with Vergne 13th and Kvyat 14th. At the , Kvyat qualified 14th and Vergne was just behind in 15th. In the race, Vergne finished 10th while Kvyat finished a lap down, in 15th. At the penultimate race of the season in Brazil, Kvyat qualified 14th while Vergne was 16th; neither car finished in the points, with Kvyat 11th and Vergne 13th and both drivers were a lap down. At the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Kvyat matched his best qualifying position with 5th place, while Vergne was in 10th. Again, both cars failed to finish in the points; Kvyat retired due to a power unit failure while Vergne finished 12th. In 2014, Toro Rosso scored 30 points; Vergne scored 22 points while Kvyat scored 8.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 26 November 2014, Jean-Éric Vergne announced he would be leaving Toro Rosso after 3 seasons, and two days later, Toro Rosso confirmed that Carlos Sainz Jr. would partner Max Verstappen for the 2015 season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the , Sainz qualified 8th while his teammate Max Verstappen qualified 12th. Sainz finished ninth and collected two points on his début while Verstappen retired due to his car suffering an engine failure.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: During the 2015 season, Toro Rosso enjoyed unexpected success on the grid; the break-out of Max Verstappen combined with many points finishes along with two 4th places, both by Verstappen, ensured that Toro Rosso enjoyed their most successful season in Formula One based on points. Verstappen scored 49 points while his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr managed to score 18 points.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: At the end of the season, after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it was announced that Toro Rosso would be reviving their partnership with Ferrari for the 2016 season, The only difference this time was that Toro Rosso would be provided with 2015 power units, as opposed to up-to-date 2016 power units used in previous seasons but without any direct factory support from Ferrari despite the partnership. Toro Rosso used Ferrari engines from 2007 through 2013 during the V8 normally-aspirated era. On 4 January 2016 it was announced that Toro Rosso would adopt a longer wheelbase for the all-new STR11 car due to the Ferrari 060 power unit and gearbox requiring a spacer to accommodate the MGU-K at the rear of the engine (similar to the Marussia MR03 which had a longer wheelbase: about 3,700 mm). After a controversial crash in Russia, Kvyat was brought back to Toro Rosso from Red Bull, with Max Verstappen taking his place.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: During the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix, it was announced that Scuderia Toro Rosso would be rekindling their engine partnership with Renault for . The team retained Sainz and Kvyat as their drivers. Despite the Renault partnership, the team opted to utilize "Toro Rosso" branding on its engine.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 26 September 2017, it was announced that Pierre Gasly would replace Kvyat for an unspecified number of races, beginning with the . At the , Sainz moved to Renault for the remaining rounds of the season, ahead of his previously announced move for , with Kvyat returning to the team. Gasly was absent in order to participate in the final round of the Japanese Super Formula Championship, so Brendon Hartley replaced him for this race. After the race, it was announced that Gasly would return to partner Hartley for the . After the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix, Helmut Marko said that Daniil Kvyat would not be returning to Toro Rosso and that the team would race with Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly for the remainder of the season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 15 September 2017, it was announced that Toro Rosso would terminate Renault's remaining contract of customer engine partnership in order to sign the full-works Honda power unit partnership contract for 2018 onwards, after Honda had severed its ties with McLaren and thus Toro Rosso earned direct factory support from Honda as a flagship team that included free engines. On the following day, the team confirmed that they would retain their final 2017 driver line-up into 2018, with Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley. During pre-season testing, many were surprised at the speed and reliability of the Honda engine, which had gained a poor reputation during the past three years with McLaren. However, the first race in Australia was unspectacular, with Gasly retiring with an engine failure after qualifying in last place and Hartley finishing 15th. The following race in Bahrain would be far more successful, with Gasly starting 5th and finishing 4th in what would eventually become the team's best result of the season, albeit with Hartley suffering an incident-strewn race and being classified 17th.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Numerous reliability issues and poor luck plagued the team throughout the year, particularly for Hartley. He suffered a gearbox failure in China, the same race in which he and Gasly crashed at the hairpin on Lap 30, but scored his first point in Formula One with 10th place in Azerbaijan. Gasly was eliminated by a heavy first-lap collision with Romain Grosjean in Spain, but finished a respectable 7th at the following race in Monaco whilst Hartley retired after Charles Leclerc collided into his rear after a brake failure. Hartley retired again in Canada when he was forced into a wall on the first lap by Lance Stroll. Gasly was again eliminated in a collision on the opening lap at his home race in France. Two consecutive retirements for Hartley followed, a hydraulics failure in Austria and a power unit failure in Britain. He finished 10th in Germany, ending a four-race streak in which the team failed to score points. Two points finishes followed for Gasly, an impressive 6th place in Hungary and 9th place in Belgium. Hartley retired from the race in Italy after a first-lap collision, before both drivers suffered brake failures in Russia, coincidentally at almost exactly the same time. Both drivers impressed in Japan, qualifying in 6th and 7th, but both would finish outside the points. Two more points finishes came before the end of the season, 9th place for Hartley in the United States—the best result of his career—and 10th place for Gasly in Mexico.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: The team finished the season in 9th place in the championship with 33 points, 29 for Gasly and four for Hartley.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Pierre Gasly was promoted to Red Bull for 2019. His replacement at Toro Rosso was Daniil Kvyat—re-hired by the team after he was previously dropped in 2017. Brendon Hartley was replaced by 2018 Formula 2 third-place finisher Alexander Albon. Kvyat finished 10th at the opening race in Australia, keeping Red Bull's newly promoted Gasly behind him for much of the race. Albon scored his first Formula One points with a 9th place in Bahrain, before finishing 10th in China after starting from the pit lane. Kvyat suffered consecutive collision-related retirements in China and in Azerbaijan. Toro Rosso recorded a double points-finish in Monaco, the first time the team had done so in over two years since the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix. The team scored an excellent result at the rain-affected German Grand Prix, where clever strategy calls allowed Kvyat and Albon to finish 3rd and 6th respectively. This was Toro Rosso's first podium finish since their shock win at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, and their best ever race result in terms of total points.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Prior to the Belgian Grand Prix, Albon left the team after being promoted to Red Bull, replacing Gasly who returned to Toro Rosso. A number of consistent points-finishes followed, as the STR14 demonstrated its ability to fight at the front of the midfield. This included 7th and 9th in Belgium and 7th and 10th in Japan. At the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix, Toro Rosso claimed their third podium finish. Gasly took advantage of multiple incidents and held off Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes in a drag race to the finish line to finish 2nd. In the final race, Danill Kvyat finished ninth to give the team their 500th point.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Over the course of 2019, Toro Rosso only suffered a single reliability-related retirement, Kvyat's oil leak in Italy. This is in stark contrast to 2018, with seven such retirements. This consistency was rewarded as the team ended the season in 6th place in the championship with 85 points, their best ever points haul in the team's history.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Sports sponsorship is a major part of Red Bull's marketing strategy, and Scuderia Toro Rosso is not the first sports team to be bought and completely re-branded: it has done the same for Red Bull Racing (formerly Jaguar Racing), the Austrian football club Red Bull Salzburg (formerly "SV Austria Salzburg"), German football club RB Leipzig (previously SSV Markranstädt), Austrian Ice Hockey team Red Bull Salzburg EC and MLS' Red Bull New York (previously "Metrostars").


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: On 6 September 2011, the week before the , the team confirmed that they had received a sizeable investment from Spanish petroleum group Cepsa (only sponsorship but not "de facto" fuel and lubricant supplier) which ended after the 2015 season.


title: Scuderia Toro Rosso

text: Between 2016 and 2019, Toro Rosso had an agreement with the Japanese watch manufacturer Casio (through its Edifice brand). In the 2019 season, the team secured Thai-based sponsors Moose Craft Cider and PTT Lubricants (only sponsorship but not "de facto" lubricant supplier) due to Alexander Albon's factor.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Sammo Hung Kam-bo (; born 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film producer and director, known for his work in martial arts films, Hong Kong action cinema, and as a fight choreographer for other actors such as Jackie Chan.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the vampire-like jiangshi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Both Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan were often addressed as "Dai Goh”, meaning Big Brother, until the filming of "Project A", which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was given the nickname “Dai Goh Dai", meaning, Big, Big Brother, or Biggest Big Brother.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Born in Hong Kong, both of his parents worked as wardrobe artists in the local film industry and guardianship was thrust upon his grandparents. His grandmother was archetypal martial art actress Chin Tsi-ang and his grandfather was film director Hung Chung-ho.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung joined the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, in 1961. He was enrolled for a period of seven years, beginning at the age of 9, after his grandparents heard about the school from their friends. The opera school was run by Master Yu Jim Yuen and as was customary for all students, Hung adopted the given name of his sifu as his family name whilst attending. Going by the name Yuen Lung (元龍), Hung became the foremost member of the Seven Little Fortunes (七小福) performing group, and would establish a friendly rivalry with one of the younger students, "Yuen Lo". Yuen Lo would go on to become international superstar Jackie Chan.


title: Sammo Hung

text: At the age of 14, Hung was selected by a teacher who had connections to the Hong Kong film industry to perform stunts on a movie. This brief foray into the industry piqued his interest in film and he took particular interest in the operation of film cameras. As the eldest of the troupe, Hung would give his opera school brothers pocket money from his earnings, endearing him greatly to his young friends. Shortly before leaving the Academy at the age of 16, Hung suffered an injury that left him bedridden for an extended period, during which time his weight ballooned. After finding work in the film industry as a stuntman, he was given a nickname after a well-known Chinese cartoon character, Sam-mo (三毛; Three Hairs).


title: Sammo Hung

text: Many years later, in 1988, Hung starred in Alex Law's "Painted Faces", a dramatic re-telling of his experiences at the "China Drama Academy". Among the exercises featured in the film are numerous acrobatic backflips, and hours of handstands performed against a wall. Despite some of the more brutal exercises and physical punishments shown in "Painted Faces", Hung and the rest of the Seven Little Fortunes consider the film a toned-down version of their actual experiences.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung appeared as a child actor in several films for Cathay Asia and Bo Bo Films during the early 1960s. His film debut was in the 1961 film "Education of Love". In 1962, he made his first appearance alongside Jackie Chan in the film "Big and Little Wong Tin Bar", followed by a role in "The Birth of Yue Fei", in which he played the ten-year-old Yue Fei, the historical figure from the Song Dynasty who would go on to become a famous Chinese general and martyr. The majority of Hung's performance was alongside another actor portraying Zhou Tong, Yue's elderly military arts tutor.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1966, at the age of just 14, Hung began working for Shaw Brothers Studio, assisting the action director Han Yingjie, on King Hu's film "Come Drink with Me". Between 1966 and 1974, Hung worked on over 30 wuxia films for Shaw Brothers, progressing through the roles of extra, stuntman, stunt co-ordinator and ultimately, action director.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1970, Hung began working for Raymond Chow and the Golden Harvest film company. He was initially hired to choreograph the action scenes for the very first Golden Harvest film, "The Angry River" (1970). His popularity soon began to grow, and due to the quality of his choreography and disciplined approach to his work, he again caught the eye of celebrated Taiwanese director, King Hu. Hung choreographed Hu's "The Fate of Lee Khan" (1973).


title: Sammo Hung

text: Also in 1973, he was seen in the Bruce Lee classic, "Enter the Dragon". Hung was the Shaolin student Lee faces in the opening sequence.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1975, Hung appeared in "The Man from Hong Kong", billed as the first Australian martial arts film.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Toward the late 1970s, Hong Kong cinema began to shift away from the Mandarin-language, epic martial art films popularized by directors such as Chang Cheh. In a series of films, Hung, along with Jackie Chan, began reinterpreting the genre by making comedic Cantonese kungfu. While these films still strongly featured martial arts, it was mixed with a liberal dose of humour.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1977, Hung was given his first lead role in a Golden Harvest production, in the film "Shaolin Plot". His next film, released the same year, was also his directorial debut, "The Iron-Fisted Monk", one of the earliest martial art comedies.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1978, Raymond Chow gave Hung the task of completing the fight co-ordination for the re-shoot of "Game of Death", the film Bruce Lee was unable to complete before his death in 1973.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1978, Hung directed his second film, the comedy "Enter the Fat Dragon", for H.K. Fong Ming Motion Picture Company, also playing the lead role Ah Lung; a character who idolises and impersonates Bruce Lee. Hung has impersonated Lee on film twice more - in the final fight scene against Cynthia Rothrock in "Millionaire's Express" (1986), and throughout the 1990 Lau Kar-wing film "Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon".


title: Sammo Hung

text: After Jackie Chan's success with "Drunken Master" (1978), Hung was scheduled to make a similar film featuring "Drunken Master"'s "Beggar So" character played by Yuen Siu Tien (aka Simon Yuen). As his elder, Sammo's films were expected to surpass Chan's in popularity. The film was "The Magnificent Butcher" (1979), which Hung co-directed with Yuen Woo-ping. However, during filming Yuen Siu Tien died of a heart attack. He was replaced by Fan Mei Sheng and Yuen's absence may have led to low ticket sales.


title: Sammo Hung

text: As Hung's fame grew, he used his newly found influence to assist his former China Drama Academy classmates, as well as the former students of "rival" school, "The Spring and Autumn Drama School". Aside from regular collaborations with Chan, others such as Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Lam Ching-ying and Mang Hoi also began to make regular appearances in his films.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1978 and 1981, Hung made two films that contain fine examples of the Wing Chun style. The first, "Warriors Two" was the most significant role to date for South Korean super kicker Casanova Wong, who teamed up with Hung in the final fight. The second film was "The Prodigal Son", in which the Wing Chun fighting was performed by Lam Ching-Ying. The release of "The Prodigal Son", along with another film directed by and co-starring Hung, "Knockabout" (1979) also shot his fellow Opera schoolmate Yuen Biao to stardom.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung's martial arts films of the 1980s helped reconfigure how martial arts were presented on screen. While the martial arts films of the 1970s generally featured highly stylised fighting sequences in period or fantasy settings, Hung's choreography, set in modern urban areas, was more realistic and frenetic - featuring long one-on-one fight scenes. The fight sequences from several of these films, such as those in "Winners and Sinners" (1982) and "Wheels on Meals" (1985) came to define 1980s martial arts movies.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1983, the collaboration between the triumvirate of Hung, Jackie Chan, and Yuen Biao began with Chan's "Project A". Hung, Chan and Yuen were known as the 'Three Dragons' and their alliance lasted for 5 years. Although Yuen continued to appear in the films of Hung and Chan, the final film to date starring all three was 1988's "Dragons Forever".


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung was also responsible for the "Lucky Stars" comedy film series in the 1980s. He directed and co-starred in the original trilogy, "Winners and Sinners" (1983), "My Lucky Stars" (1985) and "Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Stars" (1985). These first three films featured Chan and Biao in supporting roles. Hung also produced and played a supporting role in the fourth film, "Lucky Stars Go Places" (1986), and made a cameo appearance in the sixth and final film, "How to Meet the Lucky Stars" (1996).


title: Sammo Hung

text: During the 1980s, Hung was instrumental in the creating the "jiangshi" genre—a "jiangshi" being hopping re-animated corpses - a Chinese equivalent to Western vampires. Two landmark films, "Encounters of the Spooky Kind" (1980) and "The Dead and the Deadly" (1983) featured jiangshi who move in standing jumps towards their victims, as well as Taoist priests with the ability to quell these vampires (and at times, each other) through magical spells and charms. Hung's jiangshi films would pave the way for films such as the popular "Mr. Vampire" (1985), which he also produced, and its sequels. He revitalised the subgenre of female-led martial art films, producing cop films such as "Yes, Madam" a.k.a. "Police Assassins" (1985), which introduced stars Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock.


title: Sammo Hung

text: After some relatively poor performances at the domestic box-office, Hung had a dispute with studio head, Raymond Chow. Hung had produced the thriller "Into the Fire" (1989), but Hung felt Golden Harvest had withdrawn the film from cinemas too soon. The disagreement led to Hung parting company with Golden Harvest in 1991, after 21 years with the company.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Whilst continuing to produce films through his own company Bojon Films Company Ltd, Hung failed to equal his early successes. His fortunes improved somewhat as the helmer of "Mr. Nice Guy" (1997), a long-awaited reunion with Chan.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1998, US television network CBS began to broadcast "Martial Law" (1998–2000) on Saturday nights, an action-drama built around Hung. The hour-long shows were a surprise success and installed Hung as the only East Asian headlining a prime time network series. The television series was executive produced and occasionally directed by Stanley Tong, and co-starred Arsenio Hall. Hung reportedly recited some of his English dialogue phonetically.


title: Sammo Hung

text: During 2000–2001, Hung expressed interest in creating a film adaptation of the video game "Soulcalibur". The production agreement for the film was made around April 2001 with an estimated budget of $50 million. Hung had the idea of producing a martial arts epic with Chen Lung Jackie Chan in the lead role, but the film was never made. Hung's plans were detailed on his website, but after a year the announcement was removed. The film rights have since been acquired by Warren Zide, the producer of "American Pie" and "Final Destination". No film ever materialized.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung found renewed success in the Hong Kong film industry in the 2000s, beginning with "The Legend of Zu" (2001), the long-awaited sequel to the 1983 hit "Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain". In 2004, Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" was released. Though Yuen Woo-ping was credited for the martial arts choreography on "Kung Fu Hustle", Hung actually did the preliminary work but left the film midway through, and Yuen filled in to complete it. Because of his departure from the film, there was tabloid speculation that he and Chow had strong differences over the film, resulting in their separation. Chow has since responded that Hung left for personal reasons and not because of speculated tensions. In 2004, Hung again worked with Jackie Chan, in a brief but notable appearance in Disney's "Around the World in 80 Days" as the legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung, a character played by Chan in the "Drunken Master" series.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 2005, Hung was involved in Daniel Lee's "Dragon Squad" and Wilson Yip's "" (aka "Kill Zone"). In the latter, Hung played a villain for the first time in over 25 years, and had his first ever fight scene against Donnie Yen. One of the key relationships in "SPL" had been Hung's role as the adoptive father of Wu Jing's character. However, these scenes were dropped from the final film as the director couldn't find a way to fit them into the film. In response to this, a prequel film was planned. Hung appeared alongside Wu Jing again in 2007's "Twins Mission" with stars, the Twins. In early 2008, Hung starred in "Fatal Move", in which he and Ken Lo played a pair of rival triad gang leaders. He also starred in, and performed action choreography for, Daniel Lee's "", with Andy Lau and Maggie Q. The film, was based on the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".


title: Sammo Hung

text: Antony Szeto's film, "Wushu", which stars Hung premiered in Beijing in October 2008. The film was unveiled by Golden Network at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Jackie Chan was the film's executive producer, and worked on the film in an advisory capacity, assisting with marketing and casting. Hung then worked again with director Wilson Yip and star Donnie Yen, as the action director for the 2008 film "Ip Man".


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 2010, Hung was given a lifetime achievement award at the New York Asian Film Festival, where four of his films were shown. That year Hung appeared in "Ip Man 2", which he also choreographed. His role is that of a Hung Gar master who challenges Ip Man. In the same year, Hung appeared in the movie too. He acts as Chan Wah-shun, the martial arts teacher of Ip Man.


title: Sammo Hung

text: The annual and highly anticipated Hong Kong International Film Festival was held for its 45th edition in April 2021. Hung is one of the six veteran Hong Kong filmmakers who directed renowned local director Johnnie To Kei-fung's highly anticipated anthology series : "Septet: The story of Hong Kong (2021)". The other filmmakers include Ringo Lam, Ann Hui On-wah, Patrick Tam Kar Ming, Tsui Hark, Yuen Woo-ping and Johnnie To. The short files were shot entirely on 35mm film with each of them touches on a nostalgic and moving story set across different time periods, with every one acting as an ode to the city.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In between films and special appearances, Hung has appeared in several East Asian television series. In 2003 he was in two mainland Chinese series: "Undercover Cop" with Fan Bingbing, followed by "The Valley of Lost Vengeance" (aka "End Enmity Hollow"). More recently, he played a master con-artist in the Taiwanese series "Coming Lies" and Wing Chun master Wong Wah-bo in "Wing Chun", reprising the role he played in "The Prodigal Son" over 20 years earlier. He co-starred in the series alongside Yuen Biao, Nicholas Tse and his youngest son, Sammy Hung.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung appeared as a guest judge on the China Beijing TV Station reality television series "The Disciple", which aired in mainland China and was produced by, and featured, Jackie Chan. The aim of the program was to find a new star, skilled in acting and martial arts, to become Chan's "successor", the champion being awarded the lead role in a film. It concluded on 7 June 2008, with the series winner announced in Beijing.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In another mainland Chinese television series, "The Shaolin Warriors", set during the Ming Dynasty, Hung played Big Foot, a Shaolin warrior monk joining General Qi Jiguang's marines to help defend the nation against Japanese pirates. Sammy Hung also has a role, as Big Foot's disciple.


title: Sammo Hung

text: Hung has starred in 75 films, and worked on over 230, beginning as a child actor whilst still attending the "China Drama Academy". Upon leaving the opera school, he worked as an extra and stuntman, and progressed through other roles including fight choreographer, stunt co-ordinator, action director, actor, writer, producer and director.


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1978 Sammo Hung formed Gar Bo Motion Picture Company, a subsidiary of Golden Harvest, with director Karl Maka and former actor-choreographer Lau Kar Wing (brother of actors Lau Kar-leung and Gordon Liu). The company's name consists of the "Gar" sound from Lau Kar Wing and Karl Maka (Mak Kar), and "Bo" from Hung Kam Bo.). The company disbanded in 1980, when Maka moved on to form Cinema City & Films Co. with Raymond Wong and Dean Shek. Gar Bo released two films, both starring Hung and Lau:


title: Sammo Hung

text: 1980 saw Raymond Chow pull one of Hung's films from local cinemas after just two weeks. Hung responded by starting his own production company, Bo Ho Film Company Ltd, allowing him to have greater control to produce Hong Kong films. While Bo Ho produced, Golden Harvest still operated as distributors. In all, 40 films were released by Bo Ho, several of which starred Hung:


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1983, Hung co-founded another production company, D&B Films Company Ltd ("D&B" being short for "Duk-Bo"), with Dickson Poon and John Shum. The company operated until 1992 and produced a total of 77 Hong Kong films:


title: Sammo Hung

text: In 1989, Hung formed a new production company, Bojon Films Company Ltd. The company produced 5 films, all of which starred Hung:


title: American Bulldog

text: The American Bulldog is a large, muscular breed of mastiff-type that were used as stock dogs, catch dogs, and guardians on farms and ranches. They are descended from the Old English Bulldog, which is thought to have arrived in America as early as the 17th century, brought over by working-class immigrants from England. During WWI and WWII, the breed was on the verge of extinction, with the only surviving dogs being kept primarily on farms in the southeast. John D. Johnson and Alan Scott are widely regarded as the forefathers of rescuing the breed from extinction.


title: American Bulldog

text: The Old English Bulldog was preserved by working class immigrants who brought their working dogs with them to the American South; these dogs are believed to have first appeared as early as the 17th century. Small farmers and ranchers used this all-around working dog for many tasks including farm guardians, stock dogs and catch dogs. These dogs were not a bona fide breed by modern standards as was the case for most other dogs: kennel clubs and breed registries did not exist until 1875, at least two centuries after the Old English Bulldog first migrated to America. In the 17th and 18th century, the Old English Bulldog had many different strains for cattle-droving, bull-baiting, farm dogs, and butcher's dogs. Bull-baiting was also a common blood sport of the era and though there is evidence of such migrating to America with the landrace bulldogs brought by working class Englishmen in colonial times, it is also certain that the strains that migrated to America were unaffected by the banning of the sport in 1835 in the U.K. and, therefore, there was no need for a decline in the population of the old-type bulldog.


title: American Bulldog

text: In America, there are no records but rather acknowledged landrace strains that initially depended on where a dog's master originated in England, the majority of which were bred to work as evidenced by accounts of the age in local newspapers and written inventories upon death. Later, breeding decisions were dependent on the best working farm dogs, despite breed or background. Later, in states like Texas, several separate strains of the "bulldog"-type dogs were kept by ranchers as utilitarian working dogs. Other dogs in time became guard dogs on plantations.


title: American Bulldog

text: Perhaps the most important role of the American Bulldog and the reason for its survival, and in fact why it thrived throughout the South, was because of the presence of feral pigs, introduced to the New World and without predators. The bulldogs were the settlers' only means of sufficiently dealing with the vermin.


title: American Bulldog

text: By World War II, the breed was near extinction until John D. Johnson scoured the back roads of the South looking for the best specimens to revive the breed. During this time, a young Alan Scott grew an interest in Johnson's dogs and began to work with him on the revitalization process. At some point, Scott began infusing non-Johnson catch bulldogs from working Southern farms with Johnson's lines, creating what is now known as the "Standard" type American Bulldog, also called the Scott type. At another point, Johnson began crossing his original lines with an atavistic English bulldog from the North that had maintained its genetic athletic vigor, creating the "Bully" type American Bulldog, also known as the Johnson type or the "Classic" type.


title: American Bulldog

text: American Bulldogs are now safe from extinction and their popularity has increased in their homeland, either as a working/protector dog, as a family pet, or both. All over the world, they are used variously as "hog dogs" (catching escaped hogs or hunting feral pigs), as cattle drovers, and as working or sport K-9s. American Bulldogs also successfully compete in several dog sports such as dog obedience, Schutzhund, French Ring, Mondioring, Iron Dog competition and weight pulling. They are also exhibited in conformation shows in the UKC, ABA, ABRA, ORKC, EKC. The AKC added the American Bulldog to the FSS on November 11, 2019.


title: American Bulldog

text: The American Bulldog is a stocky, well-built, strong-looking dog, with a large head and a muscular build. The shoulders and chest tend to be the most muscular parts of the American Bulldog. Its coat is short and generally smooth, requiring little maintenance except a bath every few weeks. The breed is a light to moderate shedder. Colors, while historically predominantly white with patches of red, black, or brindle, have grown in recent years to include many color patterns including black, red, brown, fawn, and all shades of brindle. Black pigmentation on the nose and eye rims is traditionally preferred, with only some pink allowed. Eye color is usually brown, but heterochromia also occurs, although this is also considered a cosmetic fault. American Bulldogs are known to drool more than other breeds of dog. The Bully type is generally a larger, heavier dog with a shorter muzzle, but the muzzle should never be so short that it causes difficulty with breathing. Standard types are generally more athletic with longer muzzles and a more square head. Many modern American Bulldogs are a combination of the two types, usually termed "hybrid." In general, American Bulldogs weigh between 27 and 54 kg (60 to 120 lb) and are 52 to 70 cm (20 to 28 in) at the withers, but have been known to greatly exceed these dimensions, especially in the "out of standard," nonworking stock.


title: American Bulldog

text: American Bulldogs are typically confident, social, ebullient and lively dogs that are at ease with their families. They bond strongly with their owners, and are happiest when their masters can shower them with time and attention. They are not as friendly, however, with people they do not know: their ancestors were farm dogs who guarded the home, the livestock, and the kids when their master was away. They mature later than many other breeds, not until the age of two, and as puppies they will be curious yet aloof with strangers, but confident at maturity.


title: American Bulldog

text: Socialization of this breed is paramount: this breed should never be left alone, bored, in a house or garage day after day, as it may become chronically fearful and aggressive towards things it does not know or understand. This fear and aggression must be trained out of the dog immediately if the dog is obtained past the age of 18 months.


title: American Bulldog

text: American Bulldogs are a known breed that will destroy furniture and shoes if they are not given enough to do and this is yet another reason too much isolation is disastrous for this breed. Fear- or aggression-causing triggers can include other dogs, children it does not know, postal workers, and strangers. An American Bulldog does not trust anyone at first sight and must learn from its master what is a threat and what is not, and a dog of this breed must learn when to be territorial and when everything is okay. In this facet its temperament is similar to other longer established and better-known utility breeds used for livestock guarding, like the Rottweiler, itself a German type of "bulldog"; another name for the breed being ""Rottweiler Metzgerhund,"" or ""butcher's dog from Rottweil"".


title: American Bulldog

text: With children, socialization from the time the dog is brought home is a must. True aggression towards babies and young children is rare and not characteristic of how the breed is meant to behave at all-this is a breed that ordinarily likes children; so long as it has had time to get to know them well it is more likely to play with the kids than hurt them. In fact, this breed can be very tolerant of a child's grabby hands that tug on its ears and can be a very devoted fellow mischief maker to the young ones in his family; the American Bulldog has a playful, impish streak when well-raised, well-bred, well-loved, and well-rounded. Owners of this breed ideally will understand that this is a high-octane, powerful, headstrong breed and they shall be very careful to set limitations and rules for their dog and reinforce obedience training throughout the dog's life. They will not be first-time owners of a dog and shall be firm, but fair – harsh and violent methods will not work in training this breed, as it will only backfire and make the dog shut down, stubbornly refusing to listen to any further commands and making it angrier and angrier. They will have access to places where the dog can exercise and run, but the owner will not take off the leash unless an area is enclosed with a high fence.


title: American Bulldog

text: Unlike most other bulldog breeds, they are competent swimmers. That said, they do not have the affinity for water a retriever would: they swim if they have to do it, not because they particularly enjoy it. They are capable of jumping in excess of vertically due to the dense muscle build of the breed and they love to run, jump, tackle and cavort. Lively, muddy games of rugby, Frisbee, American football, or lacrosse are rough-and-tumble games that this breed would adore, since it loves to roughhouse and will be thrilled to be included in a game with the children or help a teenager practice for the big game. A tall fence is a must to keep an American Bulldog from wandering off on an adventure and forgetting how to get home, so a microchip is highly recommended. Young American Bulldogs under the age of three years in particular love to bounce around and may accidentally knock over a toddler, a senior citizen, or a small child, so handling this breed on a leash is not recommended if one is a small child or an elderly adult, since the breed loves to pull and tug and may run away with those not strong enough to hold it.


title: American Bulldog

text: They can do well with other dogs in the household or who visit regularly when properly introduced and supervised, preferably on neutral ground for the first few meetings so the American Bulldog in question can learn that this new dog has come to play, not to hurt his beloved family and home. They are not necessarily good with strange dogs, especially in chaotic environments like the dog park. The more exposure to good training practices and clear behavior expectations with other dogs and people, the more likely the success at being controlled both inside and outside of their environment and the natural physically strong and powerful nature of the breed can be channeled positively.


title: American Bulldog

text: Ongoing training both in the home and outside of the home is essential for this breed. While the goal of the breed was originally to produce a working farm utility dog that could catch and hold wild boar and cattle, kill vermin, and guard an owner's property, when properly trained, exercised, and socialized, this breed can become a very loyal, clownish family pet who loves to play and join the family on outings.


title: American Bulldog

text: It also doubles as a fine boarhound, and in its homeland it is often both a pet and a hunter at the same time: Southern Americans prize this breed as a courageous canine warrior in a Kevlar vest that will pin down an angry feral pig and defend the customary pack of hounds and the gunman from the pig's tusks. However, they also prize the breed having a soft, affectionate inner nature that can easily transition away from the hunt to a nice warm bath, a round of playing with the children, and have a well earned nap on its bed after getting a belly full of the barbecued wild hog ribs as a treasured member of the family. As a working breed, they are good on pigs as catch dogs and decent on cattle: they stand their ground when challenged by an angry steer and still retain the herding instinct. Overall, the American Bulldog is a breed that truly falls in love with his family and will do anything to keep it safe if the dog correctly senses danger up to, and including, risking its life to save them.


title: American Bulldog

text: American Bulldogs generally live from 10 to 16 years, and tend to be strong, physically active, and often healthy. Some health problems in American bulldogs are often found within certain genetic lines, and are not common to the entire breed, while others, such as neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL), Ichthyosis, disorders of the kidney and thyroid, ACL tears, hip dysplasia, cherry eye, elbow dysplasia, entropion, ectropion, and bone cancer are more common to the general population of American Bulldogs. There are DNA tests available to help breeders screen breeding animals for NCL (neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis) and Ichthyosis. A Penn Hip (Pennsylvania Hip Improvement project) or OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) screening is recommended for all potential breeding animals. Some American Bulldogs are prone to allergies. Due to the ideal of beauty regarding the shape of the face the skull malformation brachycephaly was increased by breeding selection.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Renoir is the final representative of a tradition which runs directly from Rubens to Watteau."


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: He was the father of actor Pierre Renoir (1885–1952), filmmaker Jean Renoir (1894–1979) and ceramic artist Claude Renoir (1901–1969). He was the grandfather of the filmmaker Claude Renoir (1913–1993), son of Pierre.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France, in 1841. His father, Léonard Renoir, was a tailor of modest means, so, in 1844, Renoir's family moved to Paris in search of more favorable prospects. The location of their home, in rue d’Argenteuil in central Paris, placed Renoir in proximity to the Louvre. Although the young Renoir had a natural proclivity for drawing, he exhibited a greater talent for singing. His talent was encouraged by his teacher, Charles Gounod, who was the choirmaster at the Church of St Roch at the time. However, due to the family's financial circumstances, Renoir had to discontinue his music lessons and leave school at the age of thirteen to pursue an apprenticeship at a porcelain factory.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Although Renoir displayed a talent for his work, he frequently tired of the subject matter and sought refuge in the galleries of the Louvre. The owner of the factory recognized his apprentice's talent and communicated this to Renoir's family. Following this, Renoir started taking lessons to prepare for entry into Ecole des Beaux Arts. When the porcelain factory adopted mechanical reproduction processes in 1858, Renoir was forced to find other means to support his learning. Before he enrolled in art school, he also painted hangings for overseas missionaries and decorations on fans.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1862, he began studying art under Charles Gleyre in Paris. There he met Alfred Sisley, Frédéric Bazille, and Claude Monet. At times, during the 1860s, he did not have enough money to buy paint. Renoir had his first success at the Salon of 1868 with his painting "Lise with a Parasol" (1867), which depicted Lise Tréhot, his lover at the time. Although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at the Paris Salon in 1864, recognition was slow in coming, partly as a result of the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: During the Paris Commune in 1871, while Renoir painted on the banks of the Seine River, some Communards thought he was a spy and were about to throw him into the river, when a leader of the "Commune", Raoul Rigault, recognized Renoir as the man who had protected him on an earlier occasion.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1874, a ten-year friendship with Jules Le Cœur and his family ended, and Renoir lost not only the valuable support gained by the association but also a generous welcome to stay on their property near Fontainebleau and its scenic forest. This loss of a favorite painting location resulted in a distinct change of subjects.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Renoir was inspired by the style and subject matter of previous modern painters Camille Pissarro and Édouard Manet. After a series of rejections by the Salon juries, he joined forces with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, and several other artists to mount the first Impressionist exhibition in April 1874, in which Renoir displayed six paintings. Although the critical response to the exhibition was largely unfavorable, Renoir's work was comparatively well received. That same year, two of his works were shown with Durand-Ruel in London.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Hoping to secure a livelihood by attracting portrait commissions, Renoir displayed mostly portraits at the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. He contributed a more diverse range of paintings the next year when the group presented its third exhibition; they included "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette" and "The Swing". Renoir did not exhibit in the fourth or fifth Impressionist exhibitions, and instead resumed submitting his works to the Salon. By the end of the 1870s, particularly after the success of his painting "Mme Charpentier and her Children" (1878) at the Salon of 1879, Renoir was a successful and fashionable painter.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1881, he traveled to Algeria, a country he associated with Eugène Delacroix, then to Madrid, to see the work of Diego Velázquez. Following that, he traveled to Italy to see Titian's masterpieces in Florence and the paintings of Raphael in Rome. On 15 January 1882, Renoir met the composer Richard Wagner at his home in Palermo, Sicily. Renoir painted Wagner's portrait in just thirty-five minutes. In the same year, after contracting pneumonia which permanently damaged his respiratory system, Renoir convalesced for six weeks in Algeria.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1883, Renoir spent the summer in Guernsey, one of the islands in the English Channel with a varied landscape of beaches, cliffs, and bays, where he created fifteen paintings in little over a month. Most of these feature "Moulin Huet", a bay in Saint Martin's, Guernsey. These paintings were the subject of a set of commemorative postage stamps issued by the Bailiwick of Guernsey in 1983.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: While living and working in Montmartre, Renoir employed Suzanne Valadon as a model, who posed for him ("The Large Bathers", 1884–1887; "Dance at Bougival", 1883) and many of his fellow painters; during that time she studied their techniques and eventually became one of the leading painters of the day.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1887, the year when Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee, and upon the request of the queen's associate, Phillip Richbourg, Renoir donated several paintings to the "French Impressionist Paintings" catalog as a token of his loyalty.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1890, he married Aline Victorine Charigot, a dressmaker twenty years his junior, who, along with a number of the artist's friends, had already served as a model for "Le Déjeuner des canotiers" ("Luncheon of the Boating Party"; she is the woman on the left playing with the dog) in 1881, and with whom he had already had a child, Pierre, in 1885. After marrying, Renoir painted many scenes of his wife and daily family life including their children and their nurse, Aline's cousin Gabrielle Renard. The Renoirs had three sons: Pierre Renoir (1885–1952), who became a stage and film actor; Jean Renoir (1894–1979), who became a filmmaker of note; and Claude Renoir (1901–1969), who became a ceramic artist.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Around 1892, Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he moved to the warmer climate of "Les Collettes", a farm at the village of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, close to the Mediterranean coast. Renoir painted during the last twenty years of his life even after his arthritis severely limited his mobility. He developed progressive deformities in his hands and ankylosis of his right shoulder, requiring him to change his painting technique. It has often been reported that in the advanced stages of his arthritis, he painted by having a brush strapped to his paralyzed fingers, but this is erroneous; Renoir remained able to grasp a brush, although he required an assistant to place it in his hand. The wrapping of his hands with bandages, apparent in late photographs of the artist, served to prevent skin irritation.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1919, Renoir visited the Louvre to see his paintings hanging with those of the old masters. During this period, he created sculptures by cooperating with a young artist, Richard Guino, who worked the clay. Due to his limited joint mobility, Renoir also used a moving canvas, or picture roll, to facilitate painting large works.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Renoir's portrait of Austrian actress Tilla Durieux (1914) contains playful flecks of vibrant color on her shawl that offset the classical pose of the actress and highlight Renoir's skill just five years before his death.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Pierre-Auguste Renoir's great-grandson, Alexandre Renoir, has also become a professional artist. In 2018, the Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center in Hendersonville, Tennessee hosted "Beauty Remains", an exhibition of his works. The exhibition title comes from a famous quote by Pierre-Auguste who, when asked why he continued to paint with his painful arthritis in his advanced years, once said "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: Renoir's paintings are notable for their vibrant light and saturated color, most often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions. The female nude was one of his primary subjects. However, in 1876, a reviewer in Le Figaro wrote "Try to explain to Monsieur Renoir that a woman's torso is not a mass of decomposing flesh with those purplish green stains that denote a state of complete putrefaction in a corpse." Yet in characteristic Impressionist style, Renoir suggested the details of a scene through freely brushed touches of colour, so that his figures softly fuse with one another and their surroundings.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: His initial paintings show the influence of the colorism of Eugène Delacroix and the luminosity of Camille Corot. He also admired the realism of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet, and his early work resembles theirs in his use of black as a color. Renoir admired Edgar Degas' sense of movement. Other painters Renoir greatly admired were the 18th-century masters François Boucher and Jean-Honoré Fragonard.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: A fine example of Renoir's early work and evidence of the influence of Courbet's realism, is "Diana", 1867. Ostensibly a mythological subject, the painting is a naturalistic studio work; the figure carefully observed, solidly modeled and superimposed upon a contrived landscape. If the work is a "student" piece, Renoir's heightened personal response to female sensuality is present. The model was Lise Tréhot, the artist's mistress at that time, and inspiration for a number of paintings.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In the late 1860s, through the practice of painting light and water "en plein air" (outdoors), he and his friend Claude Monet discovered that the color of shadows is not brown or black, but the reflected color of the objects surrounding them, an effect known today as diffuse reflection. Several pairs of paintings exist in which Renoir and Monet worked side-by-side, depicting the same scenes ("La Grenouillère", 1869).


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: One of the best known Impressionist works is Renoir's 1876 "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (Bal du moulin de la Galette)". The painting depicts an open-air scene, crowded with people at a popular dance garden on the "Butte Montmartre" close to where he lived.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: The works of his early maturity were typically Impressionist snapshots of real life, full of sparkling color and light.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: By the mid-1880s, however, he had broken with the movement to apply a more disciplined formal technique to portraits and figure paintings, particularly of women. It was a trip to Italy in 1881 when he saw works by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, and other Renaissance masters, that convinced him that he was on the wrong path. At that point he declared, "I had gone as far as I could with Impressionism and I realized I could neither paint nor draw".


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: For the next several years he painted in a more severe style in an attempt to return to classicism. Concentrating on his drawing and emphasizing the outlines of figures, he painted works such as "Blonde Bather" (1881 and 1882) and "The Large Bathers" (1884–87; Philadelphia Museum of Art) during what is sometimes referred to as his "Ingres period".


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: After 1890 he changed direction again. To dissolve outlines, as in his earlier work, he returned to thinly brushed color.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: From this period onward he concentrated on monumental nudes and domestic scenes, fine examples of which are "Girls at the Piano", 1892, and "Grandes Baigneuses", 1887. The latter painting is the most typical and successful of Renoir's late, abundantly fleshed nudes.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: A prolific artist, he created several thousand paintings. The warm sensuality of Renoir's style made his paintings some of the most well-known and frequently reproduced works in the history of art. The single largest collection of his works—181 paintings in all—is at the Barnes Foundation, in Philadelphia.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: A five-volume "catalogue raisonné" of Renoir's works (with one supplement) was published by Bernheim-Jeune between 1983 and 2014. Bernheim-Jeune is the only surviving major art dealer that was used by Renoir. The Wildenstein Institute is preparing, but has not yet published, a critical catalogue of Renoir's work. A disagreement between these two organizations concerning an unsigned work in Picton Castle was at the centre of the second episode of the fourth season of the television series "Fake or Fortune".


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 1919, Ambroise Vollard, a renowned art dealer, published a book on the life and work of Renoir, "La Vie et l'Œuvre de Pierre-Auguste Renoir", in an edition of 1000 copies. In 1986, Vollard's heirs started reprinting the copper plates, generally, etchings with hand applied watercolor. These prints are signed by Renoir in the plate and are embossed "Vollard" in the lower margin. They are not numbered, dated or signed in pencil.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: A small version of "Bal du moulin de la Galette" sold for $78.1 million 17 May 1990 at Sotheby's New York.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: In 2012, Renoir's "Paysage Bords de Seine" was offered for sale at auction but the painting was discovered to have been stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1951. The sale was cancelled.


title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir

text: On 7 December 2019 the Alberta Symphony Orchestra presented a Tribute to Renoir at Triffo Theater in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, under the direction of pianist and conductor Emilio De Mercato, for the 100th anniversary of the death of Renoir.


title: Blue cheese

text: Blue cheese (or bleu cheese) is semi-soft cheese with a sharp, salty flavor. It is made with cultures of the edible mold "Penicillium", giving it spots or veins throughout the cheese in shades of blue or green. It carries a distinct smell, either from the mold or from various specially cultivated bacteria such as "Brevibacterium linens", which also causes foot odor and other human body odors.


title: Blue cheese

text: Some blue cheeses are injected with spores before the curds form, and others have spores mixed in with the curds after they form. Blue cheeses are typically aged in temperature-controlled environments such as caves.


title: Blue cheese

text: Blue cheese can be eaten by itself or can be spread, crumbled or melted into or over many other foods.


title: Blue cheese

text: Blue cheese is believed to have been discovered by accident when cheeses were stored in caves with naturally controlled temperature and moisture levels which happened to be favorable environments for varieties of harmless mold. Analysis of paleofeces sampled in the salt mines of Hallstatt (Austria) showed that miners of the Hallstatt Period (800 to 400 BC) already consumed blue cheese and beer.


title: Blue cheese

text: According to legend, one of the first blue cheeses, Roquefort, was discovered when a young boy, eating bread and ewes' milk cheese, abandoned his meal in a nearby cave after seeing a beautiful girl in the distance. When he returned months later, the mold ("Penicillium roqueforti") had transformed his cheese into Roquefort.Gorgonzola is one of the oldest known blue cheeses, having been created around AD 879, though it is said that it did not contain blue veins until around the 11th century. Stilton is a relatively new addition, becoming popular sometime in the early 1700s. Many varieties of blue cheese originated subsequently, such as the 20th century Danablu and Cambozola, were an attempt to fill the demand for Roquefort-style cheeses.


title: Blue cheese

text: Similarly to other varieties of cheese, the process of making blue cheese consists of six standard steps. However, additional ingredients and processes are required to give this blue-veined cheese its particular properties. To begin with, the commercial scale production of blue cheese consists of two phases: the culturing of suitable spore-rich inocula and fermentation for maximum, typical flavor.


title: Blue cheese

text: In the first phase of production, a "Penicillium roqueforti" inoculum is prepared prior to the actual production of blue cheese. Multiple methods can be used to achieve this. However, all methods involve the use of a freeze-dried "Penicillium roqueforti" culture. Although "Penicillium roqueforti" can be found naturally, cheese producers nowadays use commercially manufactured "Penicillium roqueforti." First, "Penicillium roqueforti" is washed from a pure culture agar plants which is later frozen. Through the freeze drying process, water from the frozen state is evaporated without the transition through the liquid state (sublimation). This retains the value of the culture and is activated upon the addition of water.


title: Blue cheese

text: Salt, sugar or both are added to autoclaved, homogenized milk via a sterile solution. This mixture is then inoculated with "Penicillium roqueforti". This solution is first incubated for three to four days at . More salt and/or sugar is added and then aerobic incubation is continued for an additional one to two days. Alternatively, sterilized, homogenized milk and reconstituted non-fat solids or whey solids are mixed with sterile salt to create a fermentation medium. A spore-rich "Penicillium roqueforti" culture is then added. Next, modified milk fat is added which consists of milk fat with calf pre-gastric esterase. This solution is prepared in advance by an enzyme hydrolysis of a milk fat emulsion. The addition of modified milk fat stimulates a progressive release of free fatty acids via lipase action which is essential for rapid flavor development in blue cheese. This inoculum produced by either methods is later added to the cheese curds.


title: Blue cheese

text: First, raw milk (either from cattle, goats or sheep) is mixed and pasteurized at for 15 seconds. Then, acidification occurs: a starter culture, such as "Streptococcus lactis," is added in order to change lactose to lactic acid, thus changing the acidity of the milk and turning it from liquid to solid. The next step is coagulation, where rennet, a mixture of rennin and other material found in the stomach lining of a calf is added to solidify the milk further. Following this, thick curds are cut typically with a knife to encourage the release of liquid or whey. The smaller the curds are cut, the thicker and harder the resulting cheese will become.


title: Blue cheese

text: After the curds have been ladled into containers in order to be drained and formed into a full wheel of cheese, the "Penicillium roqueforti" inoculum is sprinkled on top of the curds along with "Brevibacterium linens". Then, the curds granules are knit in molds to form cheese loaves with a relatively open texture. Next, whey drainage continues for 10–48 hours in which no pressure is applied, but the molds are inverted frequently to promote this process. Salt is then added to provide flavor as well as to act as a preservative so the cheese does not spoil through the process of brine salting or dry salting for 24–48 hours. The final step is ripening the cheese by aging it. When the cheese is freshly made, there is little to no blue cheese flavor development. Usually, a fermentation period of 60–90 days are needed before the flavor of the cheese is typical and acceptable for marketing.


title: Blue cheese

text: During this ripening period, the temperature and the level of humidity in the room where the cheese is aging is monitored to ensure the cheese does not spoil or lose its optimal flavor and texture. In general, the ripening temperature is around eight to ten degrees Celsius with a relative humidity of 85–95%, but this may differ according to the type of blue cheese being produced. At the beginning of this ripening process, the cheese loaves are punctured to create small openings to allow air to penetrate and support the rich growth of the aerobic "Penicillium roqueforti" cultures, thus encouraging the formation of blue veins.


title: Blue cheese

text: Throughout the ripening process, the total ketone content is constantly monitored as the distinctive flavor and aroma of blue cheese arises from methyl ketones (including 2-pentanone, 2-heptanone, and 2-nonanone) which are a metabolic product of "Penicillium roqueforti". Once the specified level of total ketone production is attained, the blue cheese is sterilized at ultra high temperature/short time at for four seconds. This heat treatment also inactivates the "Penicillium roqueforti," inhibiting further fermentation.


title: Blue cheese

text: "Penicillium roqueforti", responsible for the greenish blue moldy aspect of blue cheese, produces several mycotoxins. While mycotoxins like roquefortine, isofumigaclavine A, mycophenolic acid and ferrichrome are present at low levels, penicillic acid and PR toxin are unstable in the cheese. Because of the instability of PR toxin and lack of optimal environmental conditions (temperature, aeration) for the production of PR toxin and roquefortine, health hazards due to "Penicillium roqueforti" metabolites are considerably reduced. Additionally, mycotoxin contamination occurs at low levels and large quantities of cheese are rarely consumed, suggesting that hazard to human health is unlikely.


title: Blue cheese

text: The main structure of the blue cheese comes from the aggregation of the casein. In milk, casein does not aggregate because of the outer layer of the particle, called the “hairy layer.” The hairy layer consists of κ-casein, which are strings of polypeptides that extend outward from the center of the casein micelle. The entanglement of the hairy layer between casein micelles decreases the entropy of the system because it constrains the micelles, preventing them from spreading out. Curds form, however, due to the function that the enzyme, rennet, plays in removing the hairy layer in the casein micelle. Rennet is an enzyme that cleaves the κ-casein off the casein micelle, thus removing the strain that occurs when the hairy layer entangles. The casein micelles are then able to aggregate together when they collide with each other, forming the curds that can then be made into blue cheese.


title: Blue cheese

text: "Penicillium roqueforti" and "Penicillium glaucum" are both molds that require the presence of oxygen to grow. Therefore, initial fermentation of the cheese is done by lactic acid bacteria. The lactic acid bacteria, however, are killed by the low pH and the secondary fermenters, "Penicillium roqueforti", take over and break the lactic acid down, maintaining a pH in the aged cheese above 6.0. As the pH rises again from the loss of lactic acid, the enzymes in the molds responsible for lipolysis and proteolysis are more active and can continue to ferment the cheese because they are optimal at a pH of 6.0.


title: Blue cheese

text: "Penicillium roqueforti" creates the characteristic blue veins in blue cheese after the aged curds have been pierced, forming air tunnels in the cheese. When given oxygen, the mold is able to grow along the surface of the curd-air interface. The veins along the blue cheese are also responsible for the aroma of blue cheese itself. In fact, one type of bacteria in blue cheese, Brevibacterium linens, is the same bacteria responsible for foot and body odor. B. linens was previously thought to give cheeses their distinct orangish pigmentation, but studies show this not to be the case and blue cheese is an example of the lack of that orange pigmentation. In pressing the cheese, the curds are not tightly packed in order to allow for air gaps between them. After piercing, the mold can also grow in between the curds.


title: Blue cheese

text: A portion of the distinct flavour comes from lipolysis (breakdown of fat). The metabolism of the blue mold further breaks down fatty acids to form ketones to give blue cheese a richer flavour and aroma.


title: Blue cheese

text: In the European Union, many blue cheeses, such as Cabrales, Danablu, Gorgonzola, Roquefort and Blue Stilton, carry a protected designation of origin, meaning they can bear the name only if they have been made in a particular region. Similarly, individual countries have protections of their own such as France's Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée and Italy's Denominazione di Origine Protetta. Blue cheeses with no protected origin name are designated simply "blue cheese".


title: Blue cheese

text: Under the regulation of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, it requires manufacturers to produce blue cheese with a maximum of 47 percent moisture, and minimum of 27 percent milk fat. Salt is allowed to be used as a preservative; however, the amount of the salt or combination of salts shall not exceed 200 parts per million of the milk and milk products used to make the cheese. Other than that the regulation of Canadian Food Inspection Agency does not limit producers to use bacterial cultures to aid further ripening and flavoring preparations other than cheese flavoring.


title: Blue cheese

text: Gorgonzola, Stilton, and Roquefort are considered to be favored blue cheeses in many countries. These cheeses all have a protected designation of origin in which they may only be called their respective name if produced a certain way in a certain location.


title: Blue cheese

text: Gorgonzola blue cheese takes its name from the village of Gorgonzola in Italy where it was first made. Belonging to the family of Stracchino cheeses, Gorgonzola is a whole milk, white, and "uncooked" cheese. This blue cheese is inoculated with "Penicillium glaucum" which, during ripening, produces the characteristic of blue-green veins. The odor of Gorgonzola varies between natural and creamy Gorgonzola cheese. 63 components in natural Gorgonzola cheese and 52 components in creamy Gorgonzola cheese contribute to odor with 2-nonanone, 1-octen-3-ol, 2-heptanol, ethyl hexanoate, methylanisole and 2-heptanone being the prominent compounds for odor in both cheeses.