0 an automatic way of behaving or thinking by which you protect yourself from something, especially from feeling unpleasant emotions:
The result is a sticky gelatinous mass that provides a defence mechanism for the hagfish when under stress.
In this parasite-host system it seems more plausible that a more general defence mechanism is at work.
Our results suggest that hospitalisation and\or home-care may weaken this defence mechanism and thus increase the chance that the partner's death is anticipated.
This type of cost is associated with investment in the immune system (or any other defence mechanism) in anticipation of potential future parasitism.
In this way, they escape the normal defence mechanism of the macrophage and so are able to multiply unhindered.
Mucociliary clearance is a major host defence mechanism and is slower in older subjects.
There is no doubt at all that this is a cover plan, a sort of outwork defence mechanism of the railway system.
A compulsory register is also a defence mechanism for the profession which is registered.
