diff --git a/cpp/benchmarks/string/json_benchmark.cpp b/cpp/benchmarks/string/json_benchmark.cpp
index 6fb6a07a8d0..c6a6b757951 100644
--- a/cpp/benchmarks/string/json_benchmark.cpp
+++ b/cpp/benchmarks/string/json_benchmark.cpp
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ static void BM_case(benchmark::State& state, QueryArg&&... query_arg)
   std::string json_path(query_arg...);
 
   for (auto _ : state) {
-    cuda_event_timer raii(state, true, 0);
+    cuda_event_timer raii(state, true);
     auto result = cudf::strings::get_json_object(scv, json_path);
     cudaStreamSynchronize(0);
   }
diff --git a/cpp/benchmarks/text/ngrams_benchmark.cpp b/cpp/benchmarks/text/ngrams_benchmark.cpp
index 1fe8e3b7f2e..52f55249631 100644
--- a/cpp/benchmarks/text/ngrams_benchmark.cpp
+++ b/cpp/benchmarks/text/ngrams_benchmark.cpp
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ static void BM_ngrams(benchmark::State& state, ngrams_type nt)
   cudf::strings_column_view input(table->view().column(0));
 
   for (auto _ : state) {
-    cuda_event_timer raii(state, true, 0);
+    cuda_event_timer raii(state, true);
     switch (nt) {
       case ngrams_type::tokens: nvtext::generate_ngrams(input); break;
       case ngrams_type::characters: nvtext::generate_character_ngrams(input); break;
diff --git a/cpp/benchmarks/text/replace_benchmark.cpp b/cpp/benchmarks/text/replace_benchmark.cpp
index f5428aee225..8f6704ab1af 100644
--- a/cpp/benchmarks/text/replace_benchmark.cpp
+++ b/cpp/benchmarks/text/replace_benchmark.cpp
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ static void BM_replace(benchmark::State& state)
   cudf::test::strings_column_wrapper replacements({"1", "2", "7", "0"});
 
   for (auto _ : state) {
-    cuda_event_timer raii(state, true, 0);
+    cuda_event_timer raii(state, true);
     nvtext::replace_tokens(
       view, cudf::strings_column_view(targets), cudf::strings_column_view(replacements));
   }
diff --git a/cpp/src/strings/json/json_path.cu b/cpp/src/strings/json/json_path.cu
index cd8aae12070..3b0290736ae 100644
--- a/cpp/src/strings/json/json_path.cu
+++ b/cpp/src/strings/json/json_path.cu
@@ -945,7 +945,7 @@ std::unique_ptr<cudf::column> get_json_object(cudf::strings_column_view const& c
                                               rmm::mr::device_memory_resource* mr)
 {
   CUDF_FUNC_RANGE();
-  return detail::get_json_object(col, json_path, 0, mr);
+  return detail::get_json_object(col, json_path, rmm::cuda_stream_default, mr);
 }
 
 }  // namespace strings
diff --git a/cpp/tests/transform/row_bit_count_test.cu b/cpp/tests/transform/row_bit_count_test.cu
index 21e5c818197..313113a58e0 100644
--- a/cpp/tests/transform/row_bit_count_test.cu
+++ b/cpp/tests/transform/row_bit_count_test.cu
@@ -16,8 +16,6 @@
 
 #include <cudf/column/column.hpp>
 #include <cudf/column/column_view.hpp>
-#include <cudf/detail/copy.hpp>
-#include <cudf/strings/detail/utilities.hpp>
 #include <cudf/transform.hpp>
 #include <cudf/types.hpp>
 #include <cudf_test/base_fixture.hpp>
@@ -47,7 +45,7 @@ TYPED_TEST(RowBitCountTyped, SimpleTypes)
   // expect size of the type per row
   auto expected = make_fixed_width_column(data_type{type_id::INT32}, 16);
   cudf::mutable_column_view mcv(*expected);
-  thrust::fill(rmm::exec_policy(0),
+  thrust::fill(rmm::exec_policy(rmm::cuda_stream_default),
                mcv.begin<size_type>(),
                mcv.end<size_type>(),
                sizeof(device_storage_type_t<T>) * CHAR_BIT);
@@ -70,7 +68,7 @@ TYPED_TEST(RowBitCountTyped, SimpleTypesWithNulls)
   // expect size of the type + 1 bit per row
   auto expected = make_fixed_width_column(data_type{type_id::INT32}, 16);
   cudf::mutable_column_view mcv(*expected);
-  thrust::fill(rmm::exec_policy(0),
+  thrust::fill(rmm::exec_policy(rmm::cuda_stream_default),
                mcv.begin<size_type>(),
                mcv.end<size_type>(),
                (sizeof(device_storage_type_t<T>) * CHAR_BIT) + 1);
@@ -490,7 +488,7 @@ TEST_F(RowBitCount, Table)
   auto expected   = cudf::make_fixed_width_column(data_type{type_id::INT32}, t.num_rows());
   cudf::mutable_column_view mcv(*expected);
   thrust::transform(
-    rmm::exec_policy(0),
+    rmm::exec_policy(rmm::cuda_stream_default),
     thrust::make_counting_iterator(0),
     thrust::make_counting_iterator(0) + t.num_rows(),
     mcv.begin<size_type>(),
@@ -586,7 +584,7 @@ TEST_F(RowBitCount, EmptyTable)
   }
 
   {
-    auto strings = cudf::strings::detail::make_empty_strings_column(0);
+    auto strings = cudf::make_empty_column(data_type{type_id::STRING});
     auto ints    = cudf::make_empty_column(data_type{type_id::INT32});
     cudf::table_view empty({*strings, *ints});
 
diff --git a/java/src/main/native/src/row_conversion.cu b/java/src/main/native/src/row_conversion.cu
index a10ba9a2700..a0938ddb2b5 100644
--- a/java/src/main/native/src/row_conversion.cu
+++ b/java/src/main/native/src/row_conversion.cu
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2020, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+ * Copyright (c) 2020-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ static std::unique_ptr<cudf::column> fixed_width_convert_to_rows(
       input_data->data(), input_nm->data(), data->mutable_view().data<int8_t>());
 
   return cudf::make_lists_column(num_rows, std::move(offsets), std::move(data), 0,
-                                 rmm::device_buffer{0, 0, mr}, stream, mr);
+                                 rmm::device_buffer{0, rmm::cuda_stream_default, mr}, stream, mr);
 }
 
 static cudf::data_type get_data_type(const cudf::column_view &v) {