The processing of uncertain information has always been a hot topic of research since the 18th century and deep theoretical advances have been obtained for the theory of probability theory and statistics. During the second half of the 20th century, several new and interesting mathematical theories have emerged in parallel with the development of computer science and technology in order to combine many types of information (fuzzy, uncertain, imprecise, etc.) provided by different sources (human expertise, sensor measurements, AI expert systems, neural network, quantum theory, economics predictions). The problem of combination of such diverse information is very difficult and is great challenge for all researchers working in this field. The information fusion is very important in many fields of applications and particularly in all modern defense systems. Up to now, the principal theories available for data fusion are the axiomatic probability theory (Kolmogorov 1933), the fuzzy set theory (Zadeh 1965), the possibility theory (Dubois and Prade 1985) and the theory of evidence developed by G. Shafer in 1976.

Only recently, in 1995, Dr. Smarandache has introduced in philosophy the notion of ‘neutrosophy’, as a generalization of Hegel’s dialectic, which is the basement of his researches in mathematics and economics, such as ‘neutrosophic logic’, ‘neutrosophic set’, ‘neutrosophic probability’, and ‘neutrosophic statistics’ (1995-2002). Neutrosophy is a new branch of philosophy that studies the origin, nature, and scope of neutralities, as well as their interactions with different ideational spectra. Neutrosophic Logic is a logic in which each proposition is estimated to have the percentage of truth in a subset T, the percentage of indeterminacy in a subset I, and the percentage of falsity in a subset F, where T, I, F are standard or non-standard intervals included in ]-0, 1+[. There is no boundary restriction on sup(T)+sup(I)+sup(F), neither on inf(T)+inf(I)+inf(F), which leave room for the fusion of incomplete and respectively paraconsistent information too. Dr. Smarandache also defined the neutrosophic logic connectors. Neutrosophic Logic is a generalization of the fuzzy logic (especially of IFL), intuitionistic logic (which supports incomplete theories), paraconsistent logic (which deals with paraconsistent information), dialetheism (which says that some contradictions are true), faillibilism (which asserts that uncertainty/indeterminacy belongs to every proposition), etc. and tries to unify all existing logics in a common mathematical framework. In neutrosophic logic it is possible to characterize contradictions, antitheses, antinomies, paradoxes (while in the fuzzy logic it was not), and to distinguish between relative, and respectively, absolute truth. Similarly, Dr. Smarandache proposed an extension of the classical probability and the imprecise probability to the ‘neutrosophic probability’, that he defined as a tridimensional vector whose components are subsets of the non-standard interval ]-0, 1+[. Also, he generalized the fuzzy set to the ‘neutrosophic set’ (and its derivatives: ‘intuitionistic set’, ‘paraconsistent set’, ‘dialetheist set’, ‘paradoxist set’, ‘tautological set’) and defined the neutrosophic set operators.

In parallel, Dr. Jean Dezert has developed a new theory for plausible and paradoxical reasoning that can be interpreted as a generalization of the Dempster-Shafer Theory. The neutrosophical information processing can be regarded as a prelude to the plausible and paradoxical inference developed in the DSmT, acronym for Dezert-Smarandache Theory – as called by researchers. It has been recently proved that the DSmT is able to correctly solve many problems where the classical Dempster-Shafer theory fails. The main idea of the DSmT is basically not to accept the third exclude principle and to deal directly in the formalism with the possible paradoxical, inconsistent (and even incomplete or redundant) nature of the information. Doing this, the DSmT allows us to get easily results without approximations or requirement of heuristics for combining any sources of information (even for those appearing as in full contradiction). Details about neutrosophic logic and DSmT can be found in following free e-books available at:
http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/NeutrosophicProceedings.pdf
http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/eBook-Neutrosophics2.pdf
http://www.gallup.unm.edu/~smarandache/IntroNeutLogic.pdf
Potential authors can also ask organizers for additional references.

The goal of this session is to present and discuss theoretical advances in neutrosophic logic and DSmT, together with applications in information fusion. The session will focus on fundamental aspects of processing of uncertain and paradoxical information, architecture of intelligent hybrid systems, and applications of DSmT to solution of military as well as non-military problems. Authors are encouraged to submit their questions and contributions for this session (LaTeX, ps, pdf, or MS Word files) directly to organizers through email at Jean.Dezert@onera.fr and smarand@unm.edu. The contributed papers have to be ready for print by May 15, 2003, in order to meet the printing schedule (see http://fusion2003.ee.mu.oz.au/call_for_papers.html). All submitted papers must follow the paper guidelines given at http://fusion2003.ee.mu.oz.au/paper_submission.html.

Abstracts of papers can be submitted to http://atlas-conferences.com/cgi-bin/abstract/submit/cajx-01 which is a web site at York University, Canada, and to view submitted abstracts at
http://atlas-conferences.com/cgi-bin/abstract/cajx-01.
Deadline for submission: January 15th, 2003. Chair: Dr. Jean Dezert, Co-Chair: Prof. Florentin Smarandache,
Place: Radisson Hotel, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.