Urnas Eletrônicas no Brasil: linha do tempo, evolução e falhas e desafios de segurança

Mesmo após anos de implantação e evolução do voto eletrônico, as urnas eletrônicas continuam sendo alvo crescente de críticas, tanto por parte de especialistas em segurança da informação quanto pela sociedade. Os principais desa os no uso desse tipo de urnas são garantir a transparência, a auditabilidade e a contabilidade do sistema de votação, ao mesmo tempo em que garante-se também a integridade, a confidencialidade e a privacidade dos votos. No sistema brasileiro, entretanto, os principais pontos criticados são exatamente apouca transparência e a restrita auditabilidade das urnas, que nos poucos casos em que foram concedidos à sociedade civil fora de períodos eleitorais, levaram a descobertas de falhas de segurança. Não é surpresa,portanto, que isso, somado à atual impossibilidade de se auditar os resultados eleitorais, coloque em cheque acontabilidade no sistema. Neste survey, nós apresentamos e analisamos a evolução dos sistemas de votação eletrônica com o objetivo de criar uma linha do tempo e discutir falhas de seguranças e desa os em aberto.Também identificamos e discutimos questões importantes a serem respondidas para que um sistema baseado em urnas eletrônicas possa, de fato, ser um dos principais mecanismos de eleição de representantes em uma democracia112112sem informaçãoEven after years of implementation and evolution of electronic voting, electronic ballot boxes continue to be a growing target for criticism, both by information security experts and by society. The main challenges in using this type of ballot box are to ensure the transparency, audibility, and reliability of the voting system, while also ensuring the integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of votes. In the Brazilian system, the main points criticized are exactly the lack of transparency and the limited auditability of the ballot boxes, which in the few cases in which they were granted to civil society outside electoral periods led to the discovery of security breaches. It is not surprising, therefore, that this, coupled with the current inability to audit the election results, puts in check the reliability in the system. In this survey, we present and analyze the evolution of electronic voting systems with the objective of creating a timeline and discussing security flaws and open challenges. We have also identified and discussed important questions to be answered so that an electronic ballot-based system may be one of the main mechanisms for electing representatives in a democracysem informaçã

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Multi3Generation: Multitask, Multilingual, Multimodal Language Generation

International audienceThis paper presents the Multitask, Multilingual, Multimodal Language Generation COST Action-Multi3Generation (CA18231), an interdisciplinary network of research groups working on different aspects of language generation. This "metapaper" will serve as reference for citations of the Action in future publications. It presents the objectives, challenges and a the links for the achieved outcomes