Abstract Background Physical Fitness Tests (PFTs) are part of military routines and are usually administered to applicants for the Brazilian corps member, including the civil police. Objective To identify in the literature, scientific articles aimed at assessing physical fitness of police and military personnel in Brazil, using PFTs. Methods This was a systematic review, using the PRISMA systematization, using the following search keywords "police", "military", "physical fitness test" and " PFT", in English and Portuguese. The databases used were ScienceDirect, PubMed, BVS (Lilacs) and Scielo. Only original works performed with police and military personnel in Brazil were selected, through the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results After the screening process, 11 articles were selected from a total of 1,487. Conclusions The data collected from the selected articles suggest that older age is related to a decrease in physical fitness, and better performance in the tests is related to a lower risk of comorbidities. Although high-intensity training improves physical fitness and anthropometric data, it is associated with injury rates; physically active lifestyle is associated with better flexibility.

ABSTRACT Seed germination and seedling growth are the stages most sensitive to salt stress, which can induce ion-specific effects and oxidative stress. Although silicon (Si) has been known to improve plant defense systems against stressful-conditions, little is known about seed priming with Si and mechanisms of Si-mediated alleviation of salt stress in seedlings. To further the modulation of salt-stress responses and their relation with Si, seed priming with calcium silicate (0, 0.05 and 0.1 mM Ca2SiO4) was used in lettuce seeds to improve seedgermination and tolerance on subsequent salt-stress exposure (0 and 50 mM NaCl). The effect of Si-priming was assessed on germination, germination rate index and mean germination time and survival of seedlings in salt-stressful conditions supported by biochemical approach involving antioxidant responses. Overall results indicated that Si plays a role in alleviating the negative effects of salt stress by improving germination performance and displayed increased SOD, CAT and GR activities and reduced malondialdehyde and H2O2 contents. Thus, our findings demonstrate that seed-priming with Si is an efficient management technique thatcan be used to alleviate deleterious effects of salt-stressful on germination of lettuce seeds and enhance salt tolerance of seedlings due the increased activity of ROS- scavenging enzymes.