To mitigate reduced apricot fruit quality due to mildew, browning and sand dust from natural drying under low temperatures and humidity, we determined the characteristics of three different methods of drying (via hanging) and further established their mathematical models. Various comparative analyses of natural drying by laying apricots in an area of the Gobi Desert, subjecting them to ventilated drying in an air-drying house, and hanging them on trees were conducted. The least and most efficient methods were hanging on trees (302 h) and laying them in an area of the Gobi Desert (>192 h), respectively. The loss rate and the total sugar content were 5.26% and 70.16%, and up to 18.31% and 68.54% for fruits dried by ventilated drying in an air-drying house and those hung on trees, respectively. Fruits dried by ventilated drying in an air-drying house showed the least loss and the best comprehensive quality. Using experimental data from assessments of the drying methods, mathematical models were constructed and fitted to drying mathematical models of seven kinds of porous media. The Wang and Singh model had the best fitting degree, an error value of less than 0.05, and the regression that most accurately explained the drying mathematical model for apricots under natural conditions.

The serious salinization of farmland soil and the shortage of water resources in arid areas are becoming more and more serious; In order to solve the problem of shortage of fresh water resources, find a resource that can be converted into fresh water; Brackish water is derived from farmland saline alkali land. Brackish water desalination technology has increased interest in scientists' research. However, brackish water can be used as an effective substitute for freshwater conversion because of its low salt concentration and can also be widely used in many water deficient countries. However, partial or total desalting of brackish water is essential to meet the water quality requirements of production and life. The selection of appropriate water resources desalination technology needs to understand the operation methods and technical means of the existing brackish water desalination process. Proper combination of desalination technologies can improve the efficiency of brackish water desalination. This review provides the latest advances in data, materials and categories that can help select and design requirements for specific applications.

Salination poses serious hazards to farmland soil. For the purpose of solving soil salination, desalination of water sources, and other problems faced by arid areas, a separation and desalination process for farmland saline-alkaline water is proposed; a separation and desalination device based on this process is also presented and tested. Results indicate that water associated with the pretreatment device satisfied the working conditions of the composite nanofiltration (NF)-reverse osmosis (RO) membrane system. The composite NF-RO membrane system produced a better filtering effect than either the NF membrane or the RO membrane. When used for filtering saline-alkaline water, the composite NF-RO membrane system achieved a desalination rate of 96.06%, a total hardness removal rate of 98.93%, and a Cl- removal rate of 99.32%, adhering to the standard for irrigation water quality. The flashing-condensation process realized a fresh water recovery rate greater than 70%. During brine evaporation using solar salt making processes, the primary compound of crystals precipitated was NaCl (with a relative content of 93%), suggesting that the precipitates have the potential values of industrial salts. These findings offer new technical references for solving the problem of farmland irrigation water faced by saline-alkaline areas worldwide.

The purpose of this study was to explore the changes in quality indicators and hot air drying characteristics of jujube during the natural hang on trees drying stage, and to determine the optimal picking period for Xinjiang jujube suitable to drying and processing, samples were collected six times in a 7-day cycle, respectively denoted as S1-S6, research the effects of different picking stages on the nutrient content, color, hot air drying kinetics and drying quality of Xinjiang jujube during hang on trees drying. The results showed that the water content of jujube gradually decreased; the percentage of soluble solids, total and reducing sugars increased, but the total mass of those in a single jujube decreased, and the percentage of ascorbic acid and total mass decreased during the natural drying process. The hot air drying time is different at different picking stages. The highest ascorbic acid content after hot air drying is 87.14 mg/100 g for jujube at stage S4. with a decreasing trend in cracking rate after drying from S1 to S6 and an increasing trend in rehydration. Used AHP to evaluate the quality comprehensively, found that jujube picked at S4 were more suitable for drying and processing.

The farmland in Xinjiang of China is mainly sandy loam soil, on which the crops are subject to flat planting with mulched film. Before planting, the soil should go through deep ploughing in a short operation period, thus there is high demand on the high-speed plow and it is necessary to optimize the plow based on tillage resistivity to improve its working performance. In view of optimal design of the surface of high-speed reversible plow, simulation test was adopted to optimize the resistivity model, then finite element method was used to test the force condition of the plow. At last, the tillage resistivity of the plow after optimization was tested by soil bin test. Test results showed that, at tilling depth of 300 mm, tilling speed of 12 km/hm, and when the plow height was 250 mm with cutting angle of 37° and dozer angle of 84°, the plow achieved the optimal tillage resistivity and the optimal combination was 2.85 N/cm2; at tilling depth of 300 mm, soil moisture content of 17%, and soil compactness of 220 N/cm2, the maximum tensile stress on the surface of the plow was 115.61 MPa and total deformation was 2.869 mm; the maximum flexible strain of the plow was 9.38×10-4. Soil bin test showed that, at tilling depth of 300 mm, dozer angle of 84°, the optimized high-speed reversible plow reduced the tillage resistance by 17.9% compared with common high-speed reversible plow made in China, and can provide reference to the design of high-horsepower tractors.