  We demonstrate a measure theoretical approach to the local regularity of weak
supersolutions to elliptic and parabolic equations in divergence form. In the
first part, we show that weak supersolutions become lower semicontinuous after
redefinition on a set of measure zero. The proof relies on a general principle,
i.e. the De Giorgi type lemma, which offers a unified approach for a wide class
of elliptic and parabolic equations, including an anisotropic elliptic
equation, the parabolic $p$-Laplace equation, and the porous medium equation.
In the second part, we shall show that for parabolic problems the lower
semicontinuous representative at an instant can be recovered pointwise from the
"essliminf" of past times. We also show that it can be recovered by the limit
of certain integral average of past times. The proof hinges on the expansion of
positivity for weak supersolutions. Our results are structural properties of
partial differential equations, independent of any kind of comparison
principle.
