The dilemma of arranged marriages in people with epilepsy. An expert group appraisal

INTRODUCTION: Matrimony remains a challenging psychosocial problem confronting people with epilepsy (PWE). People with epilepsy are less likely to marry; however, their marital prospects are most seriously compromised in arranged marriages. AIMS: The aim of this study was to document marital prospects and outcomes in PWE going through arranged marriage and to propose optimal practices for counseling PWE contemplating arranged marriage. METHODS: A MEDLINE search and literature review were conducted, followed by a cross-disciplinary meeting of experts to generate consensus. RESULTS: People with epilepsy experience high levels of felt and enacted stigma in arranged marriages, but the repercussions are heavily biased against women. Hiding epilepsy is common during marital negotiations but may be associated with poor medication adherence, reduced physician visits, and poor marital outcome. Although divorce rates are generally insubstantial in PWE, divorce rates appear to be higher in PWE undergoing arranged marriages. In these marriages, hiding epilepsy during marital negotiations is a risk factor for divorce. CONCLUSIONS: In communities in which arranged marriages are common, physicians caring for PWE are best-equipped to counsel them about their marital prospects. Marital plans and aspirations should be discussed with the family of the person with epilepsy in a timely and proactive manner. The benefits of disclosing epilepsy during marital negotiations should be underscored

Mapping Site-Specific Changes that Affect Stability of the NTerminal Domain of Calmodulin

Biophysical tools have been invaluable in formulating therapeutic proteins. These tools characterize protein stability rapidly in a variety of solution conditions, but in general, the techniques lack the ability to discern site-specific information to probe how solution environment acts to stabilize or destabilize the protein. NMR spectroscopy can provide site-specific information about subtle structural changes of a protein under different conditions, enabling one to assess the mechanism of protein stabilization. In this study, NMR was employed to detect structural perturbations at individual residues as a result of altering pH and ionic strength. The N-terminal domain of calmodulin (N-CaM) was used as a model system, and the 1H-15N heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) experiment was used to investigate effects of pH and ionic strength on individual residues. NMR analysis revealed that different solution conditions affect individual residues differently, even when the amino acid sequence and structure are highly similar. This study shows that addition of NMR to the formulation toolbox has the ability to extend understanding of the relationship between site-specific changes and overall protein stability

New solutions for large scale functional tests in the WLCG infrastructure with SAM/Nagios: the experiments experience

Since several years the LHC experiments rely on the WLCG Service Availability Monitoring framework (SAM) to run functional tests on their distributed computing systems. The SAM tests have become an essential tool to measure the reliability of the Grid infrastructure and to ensure reliable computing operations, both for the sites and the experiments. Recently the old SAM framework was replaced with a completely new system based on Nagios and ActiveMQ to better support the transition to EGI and to its more distributed infrastructure support model and to implement several scalability and functionality enhancements. This required all LHC experiments and the WLCG support teams to migrate their tests, to acquire expertise on the new system, to validate the new availability and reliability computations and to adopt new visualisation tools. In this contribution we describe in detail the current state of the art of functional testing in WLCG: how the experiments use the new SAM/Nagios framework, the advanced functionality made available by the new framework and the future developments that are foreseen, with a strong focus on the improvements in terms of stability and flexibility brought by the new system