John M. Allegro

“No one religion in the ancient near east can be studied in isolation. all stem from man’s first questioning about the origin of life and how to ensure his own survival. he has always been acutely conscious of his insufficiency. however much he progressed technically, making clothes, shelter, conserving food and water supplies, and so on, the forces of nature were always greater than he. the winds would blow away his shelter, the sun parch his crops, wild beasts prey on his animals: he was always on the defensive in a losing battle. out of this sense of dependency and frustration, religion was born. somehow man had to establish communications with the source of the world’s fertility, and thereafter maintain a right relationship with it. over the course of time he built up a body of experiential knowledge of rituals that he or his representatives could perform, or words to recite, which were reckoned to have the greatest influence on this fertility deity. at first they were largely imitative. if rain in the desert lands was the source of life, then the moisture from heaven must be only a more abundant kind of spermatozoa. if the male organ ejaculated this precious fluid and made life in the woman, then above the skies the source of nature’s semen must be a mighty penis, as the earth which bore its offspring was the womb. it followed therefore that to induce the heavenly phallus to complete its orgasm, man must stimulate it by sexual means, by singing, dancing, orgiastic displays and, above all, by the performance of the copulatory act itself.”

“© 2016 asian association for the study of diabetes and john wiley & sons australia, ltd. glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (gip) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (glp-1) are the incretin hormones secreted from enteroendocrine k-cells and l-cells, respectively, by oral ingestion of various nutrients including glucose. k-cells, l-cells and pancreatic β-cells are glucose-responsive cells with similar glucose-sensing machinery including glucokinase and an adenosine triphosphate-sensitive k + channel comprising kir6.2 and sulfonylurea receptor 1. however, the physiological role of the adenosine triphosphate-sensitive k + channel in gip secretion in k-cells and glp-1 secretion in l-cells is not elucidated. recently, it was reported that gip and glp-1-producing cells are present also in pancreatic islets, and islet-derived gip and glp-1 contribute to glucose-induced insulin secretion from pancreatic β-cells. in this short review, we focus on gip and glp-1 secretion by monosaccharides, such as glucose or fructose, and the role of the adenosine triphosphate-sensitive k + channel in gip and glp-1 secretion.”