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Numerous measurement devices and computer simulations produce geospatial time series that describe a wide variety of processes of System Earth. A major challenge in the analysis of such data is the complexity of the described processes, which requires a simultaneous assessment of the data’s spatial and temporal variability. To address this task, geoscientists often use automated analyses to compute a compact description of the data, ideally comprising characteristic spatial states of the process under study and their occurrence over time. The results of such automated methods depend on the parameterization, especially the number of extracted spatial states. A particular number of spatial states, however, may only reflect certain spatial or temporal aspects. We introduce a visual analytics approach that overcomes this limitation by allowing users to extract and explore various sets of spatial states to detect characteristic spatiotemporal patterns. To this end, we use the results of hierarchical clustering as a starting point. It groups all time steps of a geospatial time series into a hierarchy of clusters. Users can interactively explore this hierarchy to derive various sets of spatial states. To facilitate detailed inspection of these sets, we employ the concept of interactive visual summaries. A visual summary is the depiction of a set of spatial states and their associated time steps or intervals. It includes interactive means that allow users to assess how well the depicted patterns characterize the original data. Our visual interface comprises a system of visualization components to facilitate both the extraction of sets of spatial states from the hierarchical clustering output and their detailed inspection using interactive visual summaries. This study results from a close collaboration with geoscientists. In an exemplary analysis of observational ocean data, we show how our approach can help geoscientists gain a better understanding of geospatial time series. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: An aging population in combination with more gentle and less stressful surgical procedures leads to an increased number of operations on older patients. This collectively raises novel challenges due to higher age heavily impacting treatment. A major problem, emerging in up to 50% of cases, is perioperative delirium. It is thus vital to understand whether and which existing geriatric assessments are capable of reliably identifying risk factors, how high the incidence of delirium is, and whether the resulting management of these risk factors might lead to a reduced incidence of delirium., Objective: This study aimed to determine the frequency and severity of geriatric medical problems in elective patients of the Clinics of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Vascular Surgery, and Orthopedics, General Surgery, and Trauma Surgery, revealing associations with the incidence of perioperative delirium regarding potential risk factors, and recording the long-term effects of geriatric problems and any perioperative delirium that might have developed later the patient's life., Methods: We performed both pre- and postoperative assessments in patients of 4 different surgical departments who are older than 70 years. Patient-validated screening instruments will be used to identify risk factors. A geriatric assessment with the content of basal and instrumental activities of daily living (basal activities of daily living [Katz index], instrumental activities of daily living [Lawton and Brody score], cognition [6-item screener and clock drawing test], mobility [de Morton Mobility Index and Sit-to-Stand test], sleep [Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Insomnia Severity Index/STOP-BANG], drug therapy [polypharmacy and quality of medication, Fit For The Aged classification, and anticholinergic burden score], and pain assessment and delirium risk (Delirium Risk Assessment Tool) will be performed. Any medical problems detected will be treated according to current standards, and no intervention is planned as part of the study. In addition, a telephone follow-up will be performed 3, 6, and 12 months after discharge., Results: Recruitment started in August 2022, with 421 patients already recruited at the time of submission. Initial analyses of the data are to be published at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025., Conclusions: In the current study, we investigate whether the risk factors addressed in the assessment are associated with an increase in the delirium rate. The aim is then to reduce this comprehensive assessment to the central aspects to be able to conduct targeted and efficient risk screening., Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Registry DRKS00028614; https://www.drks.de/search/de/trial/DRKS00028614., International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): DERR1-10.2196/59203., (©Henriette Louise Möllmann, Eman Alhammadi, Soufian Boulghoudan, Julian Kuhlmann, Anica Mevissen, Philipp Olbrich, Louisa Rahm, Helmut Frohnhofen. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (https://www.researchprotocols.org), 22.01.2025.)

Prostate adenocarcinoma metastasis to brain has been reported to occur only up to 0.6% of patients and these are mostly diagnosed in autopsy series. In the setting of biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer, a suspected PSMA-avid (prostate-specific membrane antigen) lesion in the brain is still strongly suggestive of an intracranial metastasis of prostate cancer. This needs, however, a thoroughly recurrency work-up due to other potentially PSMA-avid cranial lesions, as PSMA initially was developed for the imaging of primary CNS tumours. We report of a challenging clinical case of a 71-year-old-patient with a strongly PSMA-avid lesion at the skull base. Given the medical history of a meningioma at the skull base, the further diagnostic work-up with MRI could still not rule out a malignancy, so that the patient needed to undergo a surgical excision of the tumour mass. The histological and immunohistochemical examinations revealed a relapsed CNS WHO grade 1 meningioma. From the aspect of molecular imaging and critical analysis of regular clinical care in a third-level university hospital, we consider this result very intriguing. Hence, we analyse the decision-making process and clinical course of this case in the light of molecular imaging findings., Competing Interests: F.L.G. has patent application for [18F]PSMA-1007 and is an advisor at ABX, Telix, Alpha Fusion, and SOFIE Biosciences. The other authors declare no conflict of interest regarding this manuscript., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Institute of Radiology.)