Monday, October 06, 2025

Very few regret a legal gender change in Sweden

Uppsala University

image:
Kristen Clark, postdoc at Department of Medical Sciences, Uppsala University.
view more
Credit: Tobias Sterner, Bildbyrån, Uppsala University

Fewer than one per cent of people who have changed their legal gender choose to revert to the gender they were assigned at birth. This has been shown in a new study from Uppsala University in which the researchers looked at how stable a gender change is over time in Sweden.

A new study based on national data from Sweden provides strong evidence that legal gender change in people diagnosed with gender dysphoria is stable over time. Reversal occurs in less than one per cent of cases.

“We saw that the vast majority of people who go through the process to legally change their gender do not reverse this decision. Of the 2,467 people included in the study who had applied for and obtained a change in their legal gender, only 21 changed it back to the gender they had been assigned at birth. The probability that a legal gender change will remain stable after 10 years is therefore estimated at close to 98 per cent,” says Kristen Clark, the study’s lead author.

New knowledge in the detransition debate

The study is based on the Swedish population register and patient register and analyses data from the period 2013–2023. The researchers followed all the people during that period who had received a gender dysphoria diagnosis and were able to see who had obtained a legal gender change, and how many eventually reverted to the gender that had been registered for them at birth. During the entire period, only 21 people reversed their legal gender change.

To calculate the probability of a gender change remaining stable, the researchers used a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. This is a statistical method that is often used when not all participants are followed for the same length of time. The analysis of the collected data showed that the probability of a legal gender change remaining stable after 10 years is almost 98 per cent.

“Although public and clinical debate on regret and detransition has grown in recent years, there have not been many studies to show how common that is. Our study contributes high-quality data and a better understanding of how stable a legal gender change actually is. The results suggest that it is unusual at the population level to reverse a legal gender change, and that it hasn’t become more common now compared to what was seen in older Swedish studies,” says Kristen Clark.

More research could capture the reasons why some do regret the change

According to the researchers, more studies are needed to find out more about the experiences of non-binary individuals, since the Swedish population registration system only offers binary gender options, either male or female. Therefore, it is unclear how the results of the study can be applied to the non-binary population. Further research is also needed to investigate the multi-faceted reasons behind the rare cases of reversal.

But the researchers believe that the study can help to provide transgender people with better healthcare.

“These results can provide valuable guidance for healthcare, in policy discussions and in conversations with patients, as they are based on reliable data on gender identity stability over time,” says Kristen Clark.

Journal

JAMA

TWO

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.27780

Article Title

Stability After Legal Gender Change Among Adults With Gender Dysphoria

Missouri voters show strong bipartisan support for clemency in Lance Shockley death penalty case

Survey reveals residents favor commuting death sentence to life imprisonment

University of California - IrvineFacebook

A new public opinion survey of Missouri registered voters reveals overwhelming and bipartisan support for granting executive clemency to Lance Shockley, who is scheduled to be executed this month for the 2005 murder of Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. Carl DeWayne Graham, Jr.

The study, conducted by Nicholas Scurich, professor and chair of psychology at the University of California, Irvine, found that 65 percent of Missouri voters believe the governor should commute Shockley's death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. An additional 15 percent remain undecided and are seeking more information, while only 19 percent oppose clemency outright.

Since public opinion is often distanced from policy, it is worth noting that Scurich this week presented his findings at the Governor’s office in Missouri to help inform his decision on clemency. Gov. Mike Kehoe has the authority to grant reprieves, commutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses except treason and cases of impeachment.

Scurich's survey of 440 participants, weighted to represent Missouri's registered voter demographics, revealed that support for clemency transcends traditional political divisions:

79% of Democrats support clemency
67% of Independents support clemency
53% of Republicans support clemency

“This is not a partisan issue,” Scurich said. “The data show strong support for clemency across all political affiliations, indicating broad public concern about the evidence and process in this case.”

Remarkably, the survey found that even many supporters of capital punishment favor clemency in Shockley's case:

63% of those who somewhat support the death penalty believe clemency should be granted
23% of strong death penalty supporters favor clemency, with many others expressing uncertainty

Participants who supported clemency cited several primary concerns:

Doubts about evidence strength: Many questioned the reliability of circumstantial evidence and inconclusive ballistics testimony
Procedural concerns: Widespread objection to the judge imposing the death penalty despite the jury's failure to reach unanimous agreement on sentencing
Rehabilitation evidence: Recognition of Shockley's positive conduct in prison, including saving another inmate's life and maintaining good behavior

One survey participant noted: “The evidence seems merely circumstantial. I didn't see anything incontrovertible proving his guilt, which should be the bar for the death penalty.”

Another expressed concern about the judicial process: “As the jury could not reach a unanimous decision and could not agree on a sentence, the judge was overstepping to sentence him to death.”

Support for clemency spans religious affiliations:

72% of non-religious participants support clemency
69% of Catholics support clemency
64% of Evangelical Christians support clemency
66% of Mainline Protestants support clemency

Shockley was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2005 shooting death of Sgt. Graham, who was investigating a fatal car crash involving Shockley. The case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, including ballistics testimony that experts later called “inconclusive.”

In 2009, a jury found Shockley guilty of first-degree murder. But, in the punishment phase of his trial, the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether he should be executed.

Despite the jury's inability to unanimously agree on sentencing, the judge imposed the death penalty.

Missouri and Indiana are the only two states in which judges can unilaterally impose the death penalty when a jury can’t agree on whether the defendant should be sentenced to death. In most other states, a deadlocked jury results in a sentence of life without parole.

Since his incarceration, Shockley has maintained his innocence while demonstrating significant rehabilitation, including developing a strong faith relationship, maintaining exemplary behavior, and once intervening to save another inmate's life, according to news reports.

“Missourians may disagree about the death penalty in general, but in this case, the will of the people is clear: a strong majority support clemency,” Scurich said.

The lord of the ring mouse

A lightweight ring-based computer mouse lasts over a month on a single charge

Reports and Proceedings

University of Tokyo

picoRing use cases — image:
Some examples of how someone might make use of picoRing.
view more
Credit: ©2025 Takahashi et al. CC-BY-ND

As use of wearable devices such as augmented reality (AR) glasses has slowly but steadily increased, so too has the desire to control these devices in an easy and convenient way. Ring controllers worn on the finger already exist, but usually have some drawbacks in their size, weight or power consumption. Researchers including those at the University of Tokyo developed picoRing, an ultralow-power, ring-based wireless mouse to solve this problem. It uses a novel method to communicate with devices giving it an incredibly long use period between charges.

The humble computer mouse has been around for a long time. They are so established that various attempts to shift the paradigm of the way we input movement to devices have failed to take hold. One reason for this being that something needs to be incredibly intuitive and even more convenient than current mice already are. To this end, wearable, ring-based devices have already been brought to market, but they have not caught on in a significant way, often due to technological limitations. But as some use cases become more common, especially those that require or benefit from desk-free and hands-free use, rings are a strong candidate to pull people away from their beloved mice.

“My team and I created picoRing, an ultralow-power, tiny mouse that controls AR glasses over a month on a single charge. Previous so-called smart rings suffer from short lifespans because their small 50-60 megawatt-hour batteries struggle to power the necessary communications components for long,” said Project Assistant Professor Ryo Takahashi from the University of Tokyo’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems. “To solve this challenge, we needed picoRing to use hundreds of times less power at around 30-500 microwatts. So, we introduced a watchlike wristband that acts as a signal relay between the ring and AR glasses or other devices. This allowed us to use far weaker, and less power-hungry, communications components in the ring itself.”

You probably already know and maybe even use devices that utilize Bluetooth, like wireless headphones, or NFC, like contactless payment systems. Bluetooth, while power-efficient in the context of some devices, would use too much power for the researchers’ purpose, and NFC, which is fully passive, doesn’t need any local power source at all, but only works at very small distances. So, Takahashi and his team had to innovate and came up with something based on semi-passive inductive telemetry (semi-PIT). This uses a familiar coil of wire used to send or receive signals, but incorporates distributed capacitors throughout its length. This special arrangement acts to amplify magnetic fields used for communication, effectively giving them a free power boost without needing an active signal amplifier. The ring only weighs 5 grams.

“Although it’s just a prototype, picoRing could have several useful impacts on the way people interact with technology. Obviously, it could mean longer-lasting wearable technology becomes more common, but it also offers a new intuitive way to interact with AR,” said Takahashi. “It offers more discreet control to avoid being too obvious in public spaces, is generally more convenient because it’s so compact, and may become a platform for health sensors or other innovations. The limitations at present are common to prototype devices; it’s still relatively bulky for a ring, suffers from some interference and can only transfer quite simple information. Scrolling and pressing are OK, but complex hand gestures aren’t possible yet.”

So, there’s still some way to go before you pop one of these on your finger. The team intends to improve comfort, make the system more reliable in busy wireless environments, and test it in more practical scenarios, such as long sessions or special use cases. The wristband might also be a bit of a hurdle, but it’s necessary as it provides a wireless relay link between the ring and the device. Potential improvements in other related fields, like electronic textiles, could help here and might boost the functionality of the ring along with it.

“Our technology could be adapted for health monitoring. A ring is in close contact with the skin, which makes it a good place to measure signals like heart rate or stress-related changes. Combining these health features with interaction control could open the door to multifunctional wearable devices,” said Takahashi. “At this stage, though, picoRing is best suited for AR and VR (virtual reality) environments, where traditional mice are awkward to use. For typical office work like spreadsheets or long editing sessions, a standard mouse is still more comfortable. But as the technology improves, it could become a lightweight alternative for mobile or occasional use.”

###

Proceedings: Yifan Li, Masaaki Fukumoto, Mohamed Kari, Shigemi Ishida, Akihito Noda, Tomoyuki Yokota, Takao Someya, Yoshihiro Kawahara, Ryo Takahashi, “Ultra-low-power ring-based wireless tinymouse”, Proceedings of the 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1145/3746059.3747615

Funding: This work was supported by JST ACT-X JPMJAX21K9, JSPS KAKEN 22K21343, JST ASPIRE JPMJAP2401, and Asahi Glass Foundation.

A diagram and teardown of the picoRing revealing the angled signal coils and electronic components placement.

The different scroll directions and button push send signals of different frequencies for the wristband to interpret and pass to the device. The angle of the ring also affects the signal-to-noise ratio. Careful engineering of the signal coils optimizes for the most natural angle it takes on your finger.

Somebody wearing the prototype picoRing mouse and accompanying wristband.

Credit

Useful links:

Graduate School of Engineering

https://www.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems

https://www.eeis.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Demonstration video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RazVNMx0Ms

About The University of Tokyo:

The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 5,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @UTokyo_News_en.

TWO

10.1145/3746059.3747615

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Ultra-low-power ring-based wireles

Research team explores inclusion at conferences

Bielefeld study shows: small steps can make a big difference

Bielefeld University

Grouppicture Behaviour 2023 — image:
As part of their conference organisation, the research team took the opportunity to systematically measure inclusion at conferences.
view more
Credit: Nele Elson

How can academic events be made more inclusive and equitable? A research team from Bielefeld University explored this question during a major international conference on behavioral research. Their findings have now been published in the journal Ecology & Evolution.

“Science thrives on diversity, but that diversity isn’t automatically reflected at conferences,” says Rebecca Chen, lead author of the study. A group of 25 researchers and students in the Biology Faculty not only co-organized the “Behaviour 2023” conference in Bielefeld, but also used the event to systematically measure inclusion.

The team analyzed more than 1,300 audience questions asked during the conference's Q&A sessions. They paid close attention to who spoke up, whether certain groups were underrepresented, and whether targeted interventions could make a difference. They also evaluated survey responses from over 300 participants.

Who asks questions shapes the conversation
One key finding: women asked fewer questions, not because they were overlooked, but because they volunteered less often. The assumption that session chairs could balance this by selecting women as the first to ask questions did not hold up.

Additional barriers were identified for people who identify as non-binary or come from the Global South. Participants that ranked their English skills or expertise lower also rated their conference experience more negatively.

However, relatively small measures could have a big impact, for example, clearly visible behavioral guidelines (a Code of Conduct) or free childcare options.

Engagement from Bielefeld
The “Behaviour 2023” conference was organized by four departments within the Faculty of Biology at Bielefeld University. The scientific team took an interdisciplinary approach, collaborating with colleagues from the social sciences.

The study was supported by the university’s Gender Equality Commission and the Department of Behavioral Ecology.

“Our findings are intended to help make conferences more diverse and equitable, not only in biology, but across all scientific fields,” says co-author Tuba Rizvi. The study is unique in its design: behavioral data, experimental elements, and a large-scale survey were collected in parallel during a live conference. It was a major logistical effort, but one that paid off. “With the right structures and practices in place, inclusion can become more than a goal—rather the norm,” Tuba adds.

With their publication, the researchers also offer practical recommendations for future conference organizers, showing that inclusion isn’t just a matter of goodwill, it’s the result of intentional design.

Original publication:
Chen, R., Rizvi, T., Berthelsen, A. L., Paijmans, A., Maune, A., Caspers, B., Sepers, B., et al. (2025). How Can We Make Scientific Events More Inclusive? Insights From Q&A Sessions and Surveys From an International Conference. Ecology and Evolution, 15(7). Erstveröffentlichung am 13. Juli 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.71588

Contact:

Rebecca Chen, Bielefeld University

Faculty of Biology

Phone: +49 521 106-2819

E-mail: rebecca.chen@uni-bielefeld.de