Background: South Korea has recently faced record-high temperatures, which have adversely affected dairy production. Holstein cows, the primary dairy breed globally, are particularly sensitive to heat stress. In contrast, Jersey cows have shown greater heat tolerance, as demonstrated by phenotypic studies. Methods: We investigated physiological and molecular responses to heat stress in Holstein and Jersey cows by measuring rectal temperature, milk yield, and average daily gain, confirming Holstein cows’ greater vulnerability. To explore molecular mechanisms, we analyzed circulating microRNA profiles from whole blood samples collected under heat stress and normal conditions using microRNA-sequencing. Differential expression patterns were compared between the two breeds to identify biological pathways associated with heat stress. Results: Four microRNAs (bta-miR-20b, bta-miR-1246, bta-miR-2284x, and bta-miR- 2284y) were significantly differentially expressed in both breeds under heat stress (|FC| ≥ 2, p < 0.05). Notably, bta-miR-20b and bta-miR-1246 were linked to corpus luteum function and progesterone biosynthesis, while bta-miR-2284x and bta-miR- 2284y were associated with immune responses. A comparison of 11 potential heat stress-related microRNAs identified in previous studies of Holstein cows revealed consistent expression trends in Jersey cows, albeit with lower fold changes, suggesting their superior heat resilience. Conclusions: Our study highlights the physiological and microRNA-based differences in heat stress responses between Holstein and Jersey cows. Jersey cows exhibited greater resilience, supported by more stable microRNA expression profiles and improved heat stress indicators, making them a promising breed for dairy production in increasingly hot climates.

Purpose: Researchers have shown that aesthetic judgments of artworks depend on contexts, such as the authenticity of an artwork (Newman & Bloom, 2011) and an artwork’s location of display (Kirk et al., 2009; Silveira et al., 2015). The present study aims to examine whether contextual information related to the creator, such as whether an artwork was created by a human or artificial intelligence (AI), influences viewers’ preference judgments of an artwork. Methods: Images of Impressionist landscape paintings were selected as human-made artworks. AI-made artwork stimuli were created using Google’s Deep Dream Generator by mimicking the Impressionist style via deep learning algorithms. Participants performed a preference rating task on each of the 108 artwork stimuli accompanied by one of the two creator labels. After this task, an art experience questionnaire (AEQ) was given to participants to examine whether individual differences in art experience influence their preference judgments. Results: Setting AEQ scores as a covariate in a two-way ANCOVA analysis, the stimuli with the human-made context were preferred over the stimuli with the AI-made context. Regarding the types of stimuli, the viewers preferred AI-made stimuli to human-made stimuli. There was no interaction effect between the two factors. Conclusion: These results suggest that preferences for visual artworks are influenced by the contextual information of the creator when the individual differences in art experience are controlled.