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This book gathers the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Frontier Computing, held in Kyushu, Japan on July 9–12, 2019, and provides comprehensive coverage of the latest advances and trends in information technology, science and engineering. It addresses a number of broad themes, including communication networks, business intelligence and knowledge management, web intelligence, and related fields that inspire the development of information technology. The respective contributions cover a wide range of topics: database and data mining, networking and communications, web and internet of things, embedded systems, soft computing, social network analysis, security and privacy, optical communication, and ubiquitous/pervasive computing. Many of the papers outline promising future research directions, and the book will benefit students, researchers and professionals alike. Further, it offers a useful reference guide for newcomers to the field.

Southern Mǐn refers to a group of Chinese dialects spoken mainly in Southeast China and Taiwan. This group occupies a special position in the study of Chinese dialects, not only because of its large population of speakers (around 48 million) but also because of its preservation of various archaic linguistic features long lost in other dialects. In this book, B.C. Kwok applies the comparative method on new fieldwork data to reconstruct the common sound system of ‘Proto-Southern Mǐn', from which all modern Southern Mǐn varieties emerged. The syllable initials, finals and tonal categories of Proto-Southern Mǐn are illustrated by more than 500 examples. In addition, this book offers an alternative view on the subgrouping of 12 Southern Mǐn varieties. It proposes that the Quánzhōu dialect and the Zhāngzhōu dialect form the two main branches of the dialect group. This book should be of great interest to advanced students and scholars in the fields of historical linguistics and Chinese dialectology.