# mkin

The R package **mkin** provides calculation routines for the analysis of chemical
degradation data, including **m**ulticompartment **kin**etics as needed for modelling
the formation and decline of transformation products.

## Installation

You can install the latest released version from 
[CRAN](http://cran.r-project.org/package=mkin) from within R:

```s
install.packages('mkin')
```

A development version is usually available from [R-Forge](http://r-forge.r-project.org/R/?group_id=615):

```s
install.packages('mkin', repos = 'http://r-forge.r-project.org')
```

If R-Forge is lacking behind or if you prefer, you can install directly from
github using the `devtools` package:

```s
require(devtools)
install_github("mkin", "jranke")
```

## Usage

For a start, have a look at the examples provided in the 
[mkinfit Documentation](http://kinfit.r-forge.r-project.org/mkin_static/mkinfit.html)
or the package vignettes referenced from the 
[mkin package documentation page](http://kinfit.r-forge.r-project.org/mkin_static/index.html)

## Credits

`mkin` would not be possible without the underlying software stack consisting
of R and the packages [deSolve](http://cran.r-project.org/package=deSolve),
[minpack.lm](http://cran.r-project.org/package=minpack.lm) and
[FME](http://cran.r-project.org/package=FME), to say the least.

Also, it was inspired by the first version of KinGUI developed by
BayerCropScience, which is based on the MatLab runtime environment.

Bayer has developed a successor named KinGUII whose R code is based on `mkin`, but which
added, amongst other refinements, a closed source graphical user interface
(GUI), iteratively reweighted least squares (IRLS) optimisation of the variance
for each of the observed variables, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)
simulation functionality, similar to what is available e.g. in the `FME`
package.

Syngenta has sponsored the development of an `mkin` (and KinGUII?) based GUI
application called CAKE, which adds IRLS and MCMC, is more limited in the model
formulation, but puts more weight on usability.  CAKE is available for download
from the [CAKE website](http://projects.tessella.com/cake), where you can also
find a zip archive of the R scripts derived from `mkin`, published under the GPL
license.

Finally, I just (2013-11-11) noticed the github repositories
[StudyKin](http://github.com/zhenglei-gao/StudyKin) and
[KineticEval](http://github.com/zhenglei-gao/KineticEval), the latter of which appears to be 
actively developed.