Both the indoor and the outdoor environments and their organization exert pronounced influence upon physical activity behavior and motor development of preschool children. The aim of this study was to explore whether partly structured activity or free play in a specific playground had different impacts on motor competence development in 4–6-year-old preschoolers. The study had a pretest–post-test design, with two intervention groups and one control. Sixty-two children were included in a partly structured activity group and forty-three children in a free-play group. Both groups participated in playground activities consisting of 10 sessions (once a week), each lasting 1 h, in a specific playground setting. For the partly structured activity group, activities in each session consisted of a combination of both structured and free activity while the free-play group were engaged in unstructured play only. The control group did not attend the playground activities (N = 36). To assess levels of motor skills, each child completed pre- and post-tests using the Movement Assessment Battery for children (MABC-2), the Test of Motor Competence (TMC) and two playground-specific tests. A 3 (study group) and X 2 (gender) ANCOVAs were conducted on post-test scores on each of the test items from TMC, MABC-II and playground tests, with pre-test scores as covariates. Post hoc pairwise multiple comparisons were conducted with the alpha Bonferroni corrected, and the partial eta-squared (η²_p) was applied as a measure of effect size. The results indicate no significant differences in motor competence measured by the TMC or the MABC-2 between groups. On the contrary, a significant improvement in performance in the playground-specific tests was observed in the partly structured activity group compared to the free-play and control groups.

Background: Sudden cardiac arrest is a major global health concern, and survival of patients with ischemia–reperfusion injury is a leading cause of myocardial dysfunction. The mechanism of this phenomenon is not well understood because of the complex pathophysiological nature of the disease. Aim of the study was to investigate the cardioprotective role of fingolimod in an in vivo model of cardiac arrest and resuscitation. Methods: In this study, an in vivo rat model of cardiac arrest using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation resuscitation monitored by invasive hemodynamic measurement was developed. At the beginning of extracorporeal life support (ECLS), animals were randomly treated with fingolimod (Group A, n = 30) or saline (Group B, n = 30). Half of the animals in each group (Group A1 and B1, n = 15 each) were sacrificed after 1 h, and the remaining animals (Group A2 and B2) after 24 h of reperfusion. Blood and myocardial tissues were collected for analysis of cardiac features, inflammatory biomarkers, and cell signaling pathways. Results: Treatment with fingolimod resulted in activation of survival pathways resulting into reduced inflammation, myocardial oxidative stress and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes. This led to significant improvement in systolic and diastolic functions of the left ventricle and improved contractility index. Conclusions: Sphingosine1phosphate receptor activation with fingolimod improved cardiac function after cardiac arrest supported with ECLS. Present study findings strongly support a cardioprotective role of fingolimod through sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor activation during reperfusion after circulatory arrest.