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A 19-year-old man presented with a fever, convulsions, and loss of consciousness at our hospital. The patient had a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 12. Influenza B virus infection was diagnosed using the rapid test kit, and an eight-fold increase in the serum levels of anti-influenza B virus antibody was confirmed using the complement fixation test. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed multifocal high-signal lesions, and an electroencephalogram showed diffuse slowing of the background activity, indicating acute encephalopathy. After treatment with peramivir and methylprednisolone for 3 days, the patient was discharged without any neurological impairment. This was a case of influenza B infection associated with acute encephalopathy in a healthy young man.

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The inclusion control is essential for the development of duplex stainless steels with high local corrosion resistance. In this study, the effect of the inclusion control by Ta addition on the crevice corrosion resistance of the super duplex stainless steels was investigated. The Ta-bearing super duplex stainless steels exhibited the higher crevice corrosion resistance compared to the super duplex stainless steels without Ta. In the super duplex stainless steels without Ta, the dissolution of MnS was observed after the crevice corrosion test, indicating that MnS acts as the initiation of the crevice corrosion. In the Ta-bearing super duplex stainless steels, part of MnS was modified to the (Ta, Mn)-oxysulfide which did not dissolve after the same crevice corrosion test as was conducted for the base alloy without Ta. This demonstrates that (Ta, Mn)-oxysulfide is electrochemically-stable. Thus, Ta addition to the super duplex stainless steel improved the crevice corrosion resistance because of a decrease of MnS which was modified to the electrochemically-stable Ta-containing inclusions.

The effect of Ta addition on the pitting corrosion resistance of duplex stainless steels was investigated in both cases without and with deoxidization/desulfurization by the addition of Al and Ca. The pitting corrosion resistance was improved by the addition of Ta with two proposed mechanisms. For steels without Al and Ca, the MnS inclusions which act as initiation sites of the pitting corrosion are modified to the electrochemically-stable (Ta,Mn) oxysulfides. For steels with Al and Ca, the pitting initiation sites (CaS and (Al,Ca)oxides) are coated with the stable Ta-containing nitrides resulting in the suppression of pitting corrosion propagation.