diff --git a/app/services/triannon/ldp_to_oa_mapper.rb b/app/services/triannon/ldp_to_oa_mapper.rb
index 106fd369..c6c097da 100644
--- a/app/services/triannon/ldp_to_oa_mapper.rb
+++ b/app/services/triannon/ldp_to_oa_mapper.rb
@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ def initialize(ldp_anno, root_container)
     # load statements from base anno container into @oa_graph
     def extract_base
       root_subject_solns = @ldp_anno_graph.query OA::Graph.anno_query
-      if root_subject_solns.count == 1
+      #for some reason the query returns nil instead of an empty array?
+      if root_subject_solns && root_subject_solns.count == 1
         stored_url = Triannon.config[:ldp]['url'].strip
         stored_url.chop! if stored_url.end_with?('/')
         uber_container = Triannon.config[:ldp]['uber_container'].strip
@@ -83,7 +84,8 @@ def extract_targets
     # @return [Boolean] true if it adds statements to @oa_graph, false otherwise
     def map_external_ref uri_obj, predicate, subject_obj = @root_uri
       solns = @ldp_anno_graph.query [uri_obj, RDF::Triannon.externalReference, nil]
-      if solns.count > 0
+      #for some reason the query returns nil instead of an empty array?
+      if solns && solns.count > 0
         external_uri = solns.first.object
         @oa_graph << [subject_obj, predicate, external_uri]
 
@@ -109,7 +111,8 @@ def map_external_ref uri_obj, predicate, subject_obj = @root_uri
     # @return [Boolean] true if it adds statements to @oa_graph, false otherwise
     def map_content_as_text uri_obj, predicate, subject_obj = @root_uri
       solns = @ldp_anno_graph.query [uri_obj, RDF.type, RDF::Vocab::CNT.ContentAsText]
-      if solns.count > 0
+      #for some reason the query returns nil instead of an empty array?
+      if solns && solns.count > 0
         blank_node = RDF::Node.new
         @oa_graph << [subject_obj, predicate, blank_node]
 
@@ -135,7 +138,8 @@ def map_content_as_text uri_obj, predicate, subject_obj = @root_uri
     # @return [Boolean] true if it adds statements to @oa_graph, false otherwise
     def map_specific_resource uri_obj, predicate
       solns = @ldp_anno_graph.query [uri_obj, RDF.type, RDF::Vocab::OA.SpecificResource]
-      if solns.count > 0
+      #for some reason the query returns nil instead of an empty array?
+      if solns && solns.count > 0
         blank_node = RDF::Node.new
         @oa_graph << [@root_uri, predicate, blank_node]
 
@@ -188,7 +192,8 @@ def map_specific_resource uri_obj, predicate
     # @return [Boolean] true if it adds statements to @oa_graph, false otherwise
     def map_choice uri_obj, predicate
       solns = @ldp_anno_graph.query [uri_obj, RDF.type, RDF::Vocab::OA.Choice]
-      if solns.count > 0
+      #for some reason the query returns nil instead of an empty array?
+      if solns && solns.count > 0
         blank_node = RDF::Node.new
         @oa_graph << [@root_uri, predicate, blank_node]
 
diff --git a/app/services/triannon/solr_searcher.rb b/app/services/triannon/solr_searcher.rb
index 520f7f45..a3558619 100644
--- a/app/services/triannon/solr_searcher.rb
+++ b/app/services/triannon/solr_searcher.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 module Triannon
   class SolrSearcher
 
+    def self.to_natural(n)
+      i = nil
+      begin
+        i = Integer(n)
+      end
+      !(i.nil?) && i >= 0 ? i : 0
+    end
+
     # convert RSolr::Response object into an array of OA::Graph objects,
     #   where each graph object contains a single annotation returned in the response docs
     # @param [Hash] rsolr_response an RSolr response to a query.  It's actually an
@@ -68,6 +76,10 @@ def self.solr_params(controller_params)
             end
           when 'anno_root'
             fq_terms_array << "root:#{RSolr.solr_escape(v)}"
+          when 'start'
+            solr_params_hash[:start] = to_natural( v )
+          when 'limit'
+            solr_params_hash[:rows] = to_natural( v )
 
           # TODO: add'l params to implement:
           # targetType - fq
@@ -107,10 +119,10 @@ def self.solr_params(controller_params)
     # @return [Array<String>] an array of query terms to be added to the Solr q argument
     def self.q_terms_for_url(fieldname, url)
       q_terms = []
-      q_terms << "#{fieldname}:#{RSolr.solr_escape(url)}"
       if !url.include? '#'
-        # Note: do NOT Solr escape the # (unnec) or the * (want Solr to view it as wildcard)
-        q_terms << "#{fieldname}:#{RSolr.solr_escape(url)}#*"
+        q_terms << "#{fieldname}:#{RSolr.solr_escape(url)}*"
+      else
+        q_terms << "#{fieldname}:#{RSolr.solr_escape(url)}"
       end
       q_terms
     end
diff --git a/config/solr/triannon-core/conf/schema.xml b/config/solr/triannon-core/conf/schema.xml
index d94ee4e4..862d6954 100644
--- a/config/solr/triannon-core/conf/schema.xml
+++ b/config/solr/triannon-core/conf/schema.xml
@@ -97,8 +97,19 @@
         <filter class="solr.ICUFoldingFilterFactory"/>
         <filter class="solr.TrimFilterFactory" />
       </analyzer>
+      <!--
+        cf. http://wiki.apache.org/solr/MultitermQueryAnalysis
+        Without this the charFilters are not executed at query time when doing a wildcard search? Add debugQuery=on too see this.
+      -->
+      <analyzer type="multiterm">
+        <charFilter class="solr.PatternReplaceCharFilterFactory" pattern="^\s*https?\:\/\/" replacement=""/>
+        <charFilter class="solr.PatternReplaceCharFilterFactory" pattern="\/\s*$" replacement=""/>
+        <tokenizer class="solr.KeywordTokenizerFactory" />
+        <filter class="solr.ICUFoldingFilterFactory"/>
+        <filter class="solr.TrimFilterFactory" />
+      </analyzer>
     </fieldType>
         
   </types>
   
-</schema>
\ No newline at end of file
+</schema>