Passing username instead of uid as panel argument

Hi,

I've used panels 2, along with views to create a custom user profile page.

I have used the User ID panel argument under the context tab to filter profile and user content by uid in my different panes.

*Problem*: Since I'm using the panel User ID argument, all my views arguments need to be set to: 'User: UID is Author' *not* 'User: Username is Author'.

This results in the uid being in the URL for all the page views,

test.com/user/12/blogposts instead of what i want: test.com/user/fred/blogposts

I would like the username in the url, I'd also like to be able to use the username argument in the views, so i can use dynamic titles that have the username, not uid.

I've looked at the issue queue and also some panels 2 context screencasts, but I haven't found any info to address this problem.

Could anyone offer a best approach of how to accomplish this and any links to documentation would be much appreciated.

Thanks