African League Against Rheumatism (AFLAR) preliminary recommendations on the management of rheumatic diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives To develop recommendations for the management of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method A task force comprising of 25 rheumatologists from the 5 regions of the continent was formed and operated through a hub-and-spoke model with a central working committee (CWC) and 4 subgroups. The subgroups championed separate scopes of the clinical questions and formulated preliminary statements of recommendations which were processed centrally in the CWC. The CWC and each subgroup met by several virtual meetings, and two rounds of voting were conducted on the drafted statements of recommendations. Votes were online-delivered and recommendations were pruned down according to predefined criteria. Each statement was rated between 1 and 9 with 1–3, 4–6 and 7–9 representing disagreement, uncertainty and agreement, respectively. The levels of agreement on the statements were stratified as low, moderate or high according to the spread of votes. A statement was retired if it had a mean vote below 7 or a ‘low’ level of agreement. Results A total of 126 initial statements of recommendations were drafted, and these were reduced to 22 after the two rounds of voting. Conclusions The preliminary statements of recommendations will serve to guide the clinical practice of rheumatology across Africa amidst the changing practices and uncertainties in the current era of COVID-19. It is recognized that further updates to the recommendations will be needed as more evidence emerges

Magnetohydrodynamic effects on stagnation point flow past a stretching sheet in presence of thermal radiation with convective boundary conditions

In this study, the mathematical modeling for magnetohydrodynamic effects on stagnation point flow past a stretching sheet in presence of thermal radiation and convective boundary conditions is considered. The transformed boundary layer equations are solved numerically using the Keller-box method. Numerical solutions are obtained for the local heat transfer coefficient, the surface temperature as well as the temperature profiles. The features of the flow and heat transfer characteristics for various values of the Prandtl number, stretching parameter, magnetic parameter, thermal radiation parameter and conjugate parameter are analyzed and discussed. In conclusion, the thermal boundary layer thickness depends strongly on these five parameters. It is found that, as Prandtl number, stretching parameter and thermal radiation parameter increase, the temperature profiles decrease. While, as magnetic parameter and conjugate parameter increase, the temperature profiles also increase

Stagnation Point Flow Past a Stretching Sheet in a Nanofluid with Slip Condition

ct. In this study, the numerical investigation of stagnation point flow past a stretching sheet in nanofluid with velocity slip condition and constant wall temperature is considered. The governing equations for the model which is in non linear partial differential equations are first transformed to ordinary differential equation by using similarity transformation. This ordinary differential equations are solved numerically by using the Runge-Kutta-Fehlbergmethod. Numerical solutions are obtained for the reduced Nusselt, Sherwood number and skin friction coefficient.Further, the effects of slip parameter on Nusselt and Sherwood number are analyzed and discussed.It is graphically shown that the velocity slip parameter has a capability to enhanced the skin friction coefficient