def fix(val):
    'strip off _: from nodeIDs... as they are not valid NCNames'
    if val.startswith('_:'):
        return val[2:]
    else:
        return val
strip off _: from nodeIDs... as they are not valid NCNames
def fix(val):
    
    if val.startswith('_:'):
        return val[2:]
    else:
        return val