Need help with guitar tablature notation

I’ve encountered some tab notation I’ve never seen before:

e:-------|-----------------------------------------------|-----|
B:-o-///-|-----------------------------------------------|-o-/-|
G:--///--|r(7)--r(9)--r(7)--------r(7)--r(9)--r(7)-------|--/--|
D:-///-o-|------------------r(7)--------------------r(7)-|-/-o-|
A:-------|-----------------------------------------------|-----|
E:-------|-----------------------------------------------|-----|

1.  Do r(7) and r(9) mean to pluck a string already bent a quarter tone above frets 7 and 9, respectively, and release the bend while the string is still sounding?

2.  Can someone explain how to interpret the notation of what I assume are slides at the beginning and end?

Please comment here.  And if this should be obvious, my apologies.