The measurement of farm economic sustainability has received intermittent academic interest in recent times, while the\ud conceptual discussions are often quite limited. Moreover, this concept receives more attention at periods of difficulty for the\ud sector. The measurement of farm viability is an important precondition to enrich these discussions. Therefore, it is necessary to\ud develop more comprehensive and detailed measurement techniques to provide more clarity on viability and vulnerability levels\ud in the sector. This paper refocuses attention on this issue, using a pilot dataset collected at farm level across a range of EU\ud Member States which facilitates the assessment of an additional category of viability, namely that of economically sustainable\ud farms, i.e. farms that are economically vulnerable but which are deemed sustainable by the presence of off-farm income. Differences\ud in viability and economic sustainability across the eight surveyed Member States are shown. The analysis is sensitive\ud to the factors included in the measurement of viability as well as to the threshold income used to define viability. Although this\ud is a pilot study, it enhances our understanding of the factors affecting cross-country evaluation of viability and sustainability,\ud and the policy instruments that could improve viability levels

Farmers face an increasing administrative burden as agricultural policies and certification systems of trade partners ask for more sustainability reporting. Several indicator frameworks have been developed to measure sustainability, but they often lack empirical operationalization and are not always measured at the farm level. The research gap we address in this paper is the empirical link between the data needs for sustainability reporting and the developments in data management at the farm level. Family farms do not collect much data for internal management, but external demand for sustainability data can partly be fulfilled by reorganizing data management in the farm office. The Farm Financial Accounts (FFAs) and Farm Management Information Systems (FMISs) are the main data sources in the farm office. They originate from the same source of note-taking by farmers but became separated when formalized and computerized. Nearly all European farms have a bank account and must keep financial accounts (e.g., for Value-Added Tax or income tax) that can be audited. Financial accounts are not designed for environmental accounting or calculating sustainability metrics but provide a wealth of information to make assessments on these subjects. FMISs are much less frequently used but collect more technical and fine-grained data at crop or enterprise level for different fields. FMISs are also strong in integrating sensor and satellite data. Integrating data availability and workflows of FFAs and FMISs makes sustainability reporting less cumbersome regarding data entry and adds valuable data to environmental accounts. This paper applies a design science approach to design an artifact, a dashboard for sustainability reporting based on the integration of information flows from farm financial accounting systems and farm management information systems. The design developed in this paper illustrates that if invoices were digitized, most data-gathering needed for external sustainability reporting would automatically be done when the invoices is paid by a bank transfer. Data on the use of inputs and production could be added with procedures as in current FMISs, but with less data entry, fewer risks of differences in outcomes, and possibilities of cross-checking the results.

Cell-mediated immunity plays a key role in host control of viral infection. This is exemplified by life-threatening reactivations of e.g. herpesviruses in individuals with impaired T-cell and/or iNKT cell responses. To allow lifelong persistence and virus production in the face of primed immunity, herpesviruses exploit immune evasion strategies. These include a reduction in viral antigen expression during latency and a number of escape mechanisms that target antigen presentation pathways. Given the plethora of foreign antigens expressed in virus-producing cells, herpesviruses are conceivably most vulnerable to elimination by cell-mediated immunity during the replicative phase of infection. Here, we show that a prototypic herpesvirus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), encodes a novel, broadly acting immunoevasin, gp150, that is expressed during the late phase of viral replication. In particular, EBV gp150 inhibits antigen presentation by HLA class I, HLA class II, and the non-classical, lipid-presenting CD1d molecules. The mechanism of gp150-mediated T-cell escape does not depend on degradation of the antigen-presenting molecules nor does it require gp150’s cytoplasmic tail. Through its abundant glycosylation, gp150 creates a shield that impedes surface presentation of antigen. This is an unprecedented immune evasion mechanism for herpesviruses. In view of its likely broader target range, gp150 could additionally have an impact beyond escape of T cell activation. Importantly, B cells infected with a gp150-null mutant EBV displayed rescued levels of surface antigen presentation by HLA class I, HLA class II, and CD1d, supporting an important role for iNKT cells next to classical T cells in fighting EBV infection. At the same time, our results indicate that EBV gp150 prolongs the timespan for producing viral offspring at the most vulnerable stage of the viral life cycle. The human herpesvirus Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an important human pathogen involved in infectious mononucleosis and several malignant tumors, including lymphomas in the immunosuppressed. Upon primary infection, a balance between virus and host is established, to which EBV’s capacity to dodge T cell-mediated attack contributes. Here we identify the late protein EBV gp150 as a novel immunoevasin, frustrating antigen presentation by HLA class I, class II, and CD1d molecules. EBV gp150’s many sialoglycans create a shield impeding surface detection of presented antigen. Interestingly, exploiting glycan shielding as a mechanism to mask surface exposed proteins on infected cells could permit EBV to additionally modulate other aspects of host antiviral defense. B cells producing wild-type EBV escaped immune recognition more efficiently than those infected with a gp150-null virus, pointing towards a role for gp150 in natural infection. Our results reveal a novel, broadly active strategy by which a herpesvirus glycoprotein, EBV gp150, blocks antigen presentation to T cells through glycan shielding, a new paradigm in herpesvirus immune evasion.