{ # closure for qm
	
	# build lookup hash
	my $point_step   = 2000;
	my $point_max    = 18000;
	my $quota_offset = 15;
	
	my %quota;

	foreach my $p ( 1..$point_max/$point_step )
	{	
		$quota{$p} = $p + $quota_offset;
	}
	
	sub qm
	{
		my ($points, $quota) = @_;
	
		# $points-1 handles "less than but not equal"
		$points = int(($points-1)/$point_step);
		if ( exists( $quota{$points} )
		 and ( $quota < $quota{$points} ) )
		{
			return $quota{$points};
		}
		else
		{
			return 15;
		}
	} # sub qm
} # closure qm

##</code><code>##

use constant STICK2 => [ 15, map( ($_) x 2, 15..23 ), (24) x 100 ];
sub stick2{
    my $q = STICK2->[ 1 + $_[0] / 1000 ];
    # changed to "<=", and "15"
    return $q <= $_[1] ? 15 : $q;
} # sub stick2

##</code><code>##

              Rate kutsu davidrw_2 davidrw_1 ternary op_orig   qm op_cmp2 stick2
kutsu      37118/s    --      -19%      -33%    -92%    -92% -94%    -94%   -95%
davidrw_2  45997/s   24%        --      -18%    -90%    -90% -92%    -93%   -94%
davidrw_1  55762/s   50%       21%        --    -88%    -88% -90%    -91%   -93%
ternary   463776/s 1149%      908%      732%      --     -1% -19%    -29%   -41%
op_orig   469008/s 1164%      920%      741%      1%      -- -18%    -28%   -41%
qm        571464/s 1440%     1142%      925%     23%     22%   --    -12%   -28%
op_cmp2   650147/s 1652%     1313%     1066%     40%     39%  14%      --   -18%
stick2    788323/s 2024%     1614%     1314%     70%     68%  38%     21%     --