In this paper, a data mining approach is proposed for duration prediction of the town trips (travel time) in New York City. In this regard, at first, two novel approaches, including a mathematical and a statistical approach, are proposed for grouping categorical variables with a huge number of levels. The proposed approaches work based on the cost matrix generated by repetitive post-hoc tests for different pairs. Then, a random forest model is constructed for the prediction of the type of trips, short or long. Finally, based on the trip type and each of the mathematical and statistical approaches, separate artificial neural networks (ANN) are developed to predict the duration time of the trips. According to the results, the mathematical approach performs better and provides more accurate results than the statistical approach. In addition, the proposed methods are compared with some other methods in the literature in which the results show that they perform better than all other methods. The RMSE of mathematical and statistical approaches is, respectively, 4.23 and 4.27 minutes for short trips, and the related value is 9.5 minutes for long trips. In addition, a modified version of the nearest neighborhood approach, entitled modified nearest neighborhood (MNN), is proposed for the prediction of the trip duration. This model resulted in accurate predictions where its RMSE is 4.45 minutes. Manuscript profile

In this paper, a new control chart to monitor multi-binomial processes is first proposed based on a transformation method. Then, the maximum likelihood estimators of change points designed for both step changes and linear-trend disturbances are derived. At the end, the performances of the proposed change-point estimators are evaluated and are compared using some Monte Carlo simulation experiments, considering that the real change type presented in a process are of either a step change or a linear-trend disturbance. According to the results obtained, the change-point estimator designed for step changes outperforms the change-point estimator designed for linear-trend disturbances, when the real change type is a step change. In contrast, the change-point estimator designed for linear-trend disturbances outperforms the change-point estimator designed for step changes, when the real change type is a linear-trend disturbance. Manuscript profile

Assuming a first-order auto-regressive model for the auto-correlation structure between observations, in this paper, a transformation method is first employed to eliminate the effect of auto-correlation. Then, a maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of a step change in the parameters of the transformed model is derived and three separate EWMA control charts are used to monitor the parameters of the profile. The performance of the proposed change-point estimator is next compared to the one of the built-in change-point estimator of EWMA control chart through some simulation experiments. The results show that the proposed MLE of the change point accurately estimates the true change point and outperforms the built-in estimator of EWMA chart for almost all shift values and auto-correlation coefficients, while the built-in estimator of EWMA chart, in general, underestimates the true change point. Manuscript profile