Decomposition of Point-Symmetry Using Ordinal Quasi Point-Symmetry for Ordinal Multi-Way Tables ()
Received 12 April 2016; accepted 5 June 2016; published 8 June 2016

1. Introduction
Consider an
table with ordered categories. Let
for
and
, and let
denote the probability that an observation will fall in ith cell of the table. Let
denote the kth variable of the table for
. Denote the hth-order (
) marginal probability
by
with
.
In the case of
, the symmetry (ST) model is defined by

where
for any permutation
of i (Bhapkar and Darroch, [1] ; Agresti, [2] , p. 439). We may also refer to this model as the permutation-symmetry model.
The hth-order marginal symmetry (
) model is defined by, for a fixed h (
),
![]()
where
is any permutation of
, and for any
and
(Bhapkar and Darroch, [1] ). The hth-order quasi symmetry (
) model is defined by, for a fixed h (
),
![]()
where
for any permutation j of i (Bhapkar and Darroch, [1] ). Bhapkar and Darroch [1] gave the theorem that:
1) For the
table and a fixed h (
), the ST model holds if and only if both the
and
models hold.
Tahata, Yamamoto and Tomizawa [3] considered the hth-linear ordinal quasi symmetry (
) model, which was defined by, for a fixed h (
),
![]()
where
for any permutation j of i. This model is a special case of the
model. The
model is the ordinal quasi symmetry model when
(Agresti, [4] , p. 244). Tahata et al. [3] also considered the hth-order marginal moment equality (
) model, which was expressed as, for a fixed h (
),
![]()
where
for
. Tahata et al. [3] obtained the theorem that:
2) For the
table and a fixed h (
), the ST model holds if and only if both the
and
models hold.
Various decompositions of the symmetry model are given by several statisticians, e.g. Caussinus [5] , Bishop, Fienberg and Holland ( [6] , Ch.8), Read [7] , Kateri and Papaioannou [8] , and Tahata and Tomizawa [9] .
For the
table, the point-symmetry (PT) model is defined by
![]()
where
and
with
for
(Wall and Lienert, [10] ; Tomizawa, [11] ). This model indicates the point-symmetry of cell probabilities with respect to the center point of multi-way table.
For the
table, Tahata and Tomizawa [12] considered the hth-order marginal point-symmetry (
) model defined by, for a fixed h (
),
![]()
Tahata and Tomizawa [12] also considered the hth-order quasi point-symmetry (
) model defined by, for a fixed h (
),
![]()
where
. Tahata and Tomizawa [12] gave the theorem that:
3) For the
table and a fixed h (
), the PT model holds if and only if both the
and
models hold.
Theorem 3) is Theorem 1) with structures in terms of permutation-symmetry, i.e. the ST,
and
models, replaced by structures in terms of point-symmetry, i.e. the PT,
and
models. However, a theorem in terms of point-symmetry corresponding to Theorem 2) is not obtained yet. So we are now interested in the decomposition of the PT model.
In the present paper, Section 2 proposes three models. Section 3 gives a new decomposition of the PT model. Section 4 provides the concluding remarks.
2. Models
Let
, where
denotes the largest integer less than or equal to x.
Consider the model defined by, for a fixed odd number h (
),
![]()
where
![]()
and
for
. We shall refer to this model as the hth-order marginal moment point-symmetry (
) model. Note that if the
model holds then the
model holds. Under the
model, we see, for any k (
),
![]()
Then we obtain, for any
and
(
),
![]()
Under the
model, we see, for any
,
and
(
),
![]()
Then we obtain, for any
,
,
and
(
),
![]()
Thus we are not interested in the
model with h being even. Therefore we shall consider the
model with h being odd.
Consider the model defined by
![]()
where
. We shall refer to this model as the ordinal quasi point-symmetry (OQPT) model. In the case of
, this model is identical to the model proposed by Tahata and Tomizawa [13] . The special case of the OQPT model obtained by putting
is the PT model. Also the OQPT model is the special case of the
model obtained by putting
. The OQPT model may be expressed as
![]()
with
and
. From this equation, we can see the log-odds that an ob- servation falls in ith cell instead of in the point-symmetric i*th cell, i.e.
, is described as a linear combination with intercept
and slope
for the category indicator
under the OQPT model. Thus the parameter
can be interpreted as the effect of a unit increase in the kth variable on the log-odds.
Consider the model being more general than the OQPT model as follows, for a fixed odd number h (
),
![]()
where
. We shall refer to this model as the hth-linear ordinal quasi point-symmetry (
) model. Especially, when
, the
model is identical to the OQPT model. Also the
model is the special case of the
model obtained by putting
, and ![]()
.
Figure 1 shows the relationships among models.
3. Decomposition of Point-Symmetry
We obtain the following theorem:
Theorem 1. For the
table and a fixed odd number h (
), the PT model holds if and only if both the
and
models hold.
Proof. If the PT model holds, then both the
and
models hold. Assuming that both the
and
models hold, then we shall show the PT model holds. Let
denote cell pro- babilities which satisfy both the
and
models. The
model is expressed as
![]()
where
. Let
![]()
Note that
satisfy
,
and
. Then the
model is also ex-pressed as
(1)
The
model is expressed as
(2)
where
![]()
Then we denote
(
) by
.
Consider arbitrary cell probabilities
which satisfy the
model and
(3)
where
![]()
From (1), (2) and (3),
(4)
Let
denote the Kullback-Leibler information, e.g., it between q and
is
![]()
From (4),
![]()
Thus, for fixed
,
![]()
and then q uniquely minimize
(see Darroch and Ratcliff, [14] ).
Let
. Then, in a similar way as described above, we obtain
![]()
and then
uniquely minimize
, hence
. Namely q satisfy the PT model. The proof is completed.
For the analysis of data, the test of goodness-of-fit of the
model is achieved based on, e.g., the likelihood ratio chi-square statistic which has a chi-square distribution with the number of degrees of freedom
![]()
Also the number of degrees of freedom for the
model is
![]()
We point out that, for a fixed h, the number of degrees of freedom for the PT model is equal to sum of those for the
and
models.
4. Concluding Remarks
For multi-way contingency tables, we have proposed the
, OQPT and
models. Under the OQPT model, the log-odds that an observation falls in a cell instead of in its point-symmetric cell is described as a linear combination of category indicators. For a fixed odd number h (
), the
model implies the
model.
We have gave the theorem that the PT model holds if and only if both the
and
models. For the analysis of data, the decomposition given in the present paper may be useful for determining the reason when the PT model fits data poorly.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the editor and the referees for their helpful comments.