Resolving complex information needs by means of natural language processing and interaction with user

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Users, in particular those doing professional research on a certain subject, frequently have complex information needs. By a complex information need we mean a user's requirement to obtain information pertaining to a specific type of relationship between two or more entities, such as "What are the causes of inflation?", "What can prevent osteoporosis?", "What effect does glucosamine have on arthritis?, "What do people think about stem cell research?". Some examples of users who might have complex information needs are business analysts, intelligence analysts, investigative journalists, medical doctors, police detectives, lawyers, and scientists. For instance, a business analyst might want to find information about the effects of credit card fraud on the Canadian banks. Currently available information retrieval technologies do not provide adequate support to users with such complex information needs: firstly, interfaces do not encourage or assist users in formulating complex queries, and secondly, search algorithms do not attempt to find instances of specific types of relationships between entities.