Joanne is a 60-year-old patient with an LDL of 132 and a family history of coronary artery disease. She has already tried diet changes (increased fiber and plant sterols) to lower her LDL and after 6 months her LDL is slightly higher. The next step in her treatment would be:

A. A statin

B. Niacin

C. Sterols

D. A fibric acid derivative

The correct answer is option A. "A statin".

Explanation:

Statins a type of drug that are prescribed to treat people that are at high risk of developing a cardiovascular disease. Since Joanne is a person with history of coronary artery disease and her LDL levels remained high after trying diet changes, the next step in her treatment will be to take a statin drug. It has been proved that statin are among the most effective drug at lowering LDL levels, therefore, a treatment with a statin will be effective for Joanne's condition.

answer: decrease

a limiting factor is the one which decrease the abundance, distribution and causes extinction of the population of species in a ecosystem. here, predators including hawks, owls and snakes are the limiting factor for the population of mexican free tailed bat.   although bats are nocturnal animals as they forge for food at night these predators also may remain active during night which can decrease the population of the mexican free-tailed bats. also, these bats eat only one type of insects that are moths. the food can also be a limiting factor as all 400 members are dependent upon same type of food needs that are moths. the decrease in the moth population can cause decrease in population size of the mexican free-tailed bats.

therefore, the scenarios will most likely to decrease the population size of the mexican free-tailed bats.