Because abdominal obesity is predisposed to various metabolic disorders, it is of major importance to assess and track the changes with time of this specific fat mass. The main issue for clinicians or researchers is to use techniques for assessing abdominal fat deposition and its accumulation or changes over time, without sacrificing of experimental subjects. In the rat, techniques to investigate in-vivo visceral fat mass are lacking. The purpose of the study was to validate indirect Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry technique and abdominal circumference measurement as tools to predict visceral adipose tissue in rats. Forty-three Wistar male rats from different body weight, fat mass and ages were included in the study. Visceral fat mass was assessed by weighing the total perirenal and peri-epididymal adipose tissues after dissection. Statistical methods were used to discriminate the best region of interest allowing the in-vivo measure of Central Fat Mass by DXA. Abdominal circumference was measured at the same time as the DXA scan. A region of interest including Central Fat Mass from the whole body DXA scan (extending from L2 to L5 vertebrae), correlated strongly with ex-vivo Fat Mass (r = 0.94, p < 0.001). Abdominal circumference correlated significantly with ex-vivo Fat Mass (r = 0.82, p < 0.001) and Central Fat Mass (0.90, p < 0.001) in the whole group of rats. When dividing the whole group into lean and fat rats, correlations remained significant between Central Fat Mass and ex-vivo Fat Mass but disappeared for the lean group between abdominal circumference and ex-vivo Fat Mass. This study validates the Central Fat Mass determined by DXA as a non-sacrificial technique to assess visceral fat for in-vivo investigations in rats. The abdominal circumference measure appears useful in studying overweight or obese rats. These two techniques could be convenient tools in follow-up and longitudinal studies.

The purpose of this systematic review was to examine the effects of active desks in the school setting on sedentary behavior, physical activity, academic achievements and overall health among children and adolescents aged 5–17 years. A systematic literature search was conducted using five databases until October 2020. Twenty-three studies were included. Studies reported an increase of around 36% in energy expenditure for cycling desks and between 15% and 27.7% for upright active desks. Children increased inhibitory control and selective attention capacity while using cycling desks. A heterogeneous quality of design and of results were observed limiting comparisons and conclusions for each active desk. Despite the lack of strong methodology for the included studies, active desks appear to be a promising intervention in classrooms to improve health-related outcomes in children aged 5–17 years. Due to weak methodology, future studies with stronger study designs and methodology are needed to better inform policy and practice about the role of classroom active desks on health-related outcomes in children and adolescents.

Tennis tournaments often involve playing several consecutive matches interspersed with short periods of recovery. The objective of this study was firstly to assess the impact of several successive tennis matches on the physical performance of competitive players and secondly to evaluate the potential of sports drinks to minimize the fatigue induced by repeated matches. This was a crossover, randomized controlled study. Eight male regionally-ranked tennis players participated in this study. Players underwent a series of physical tests to assess their strength, speed, power and endurance following the completion of three tennis matches each of two hours duration played over three consecutive half-days (1.5éday period for each condition). In the first condition the players consumed a sports drink before, during and after each match; in the second, they drank an identical volume of placebo water. The results obtained were compared with the third `resté condition in which the subjects did not play any tennis. Main outcomes measured were maximal isometric strength and fatigability of knee and elbow extensors, 20-m sprint speed, jumping height, specific repeated sprint ability test and hand grip strength. The physical test results for the lower limbs showed no significant differences between the three conditions. Conversely, on the upper limbs the EMG data showed greater fatigue of the triceps brachii in the placebo condition compared to the rest condition, while the ingestion of sports drinks attenuated this fatigue. This study has demonstrated for the first time that, when tennis players are adequately hydrated and ingest balanced meals between matches, then no large drop in physical performance is observed even during consecutive competitive matches. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01353872.