Use modern C++ casts instead of current C-style casting approaches

[bmourit]

Description

Update various API implementations that use c-style pointer casting and other c-style approaches to use modern C++ casts.

Is this a breaking change?

The function signatures would remain unchanged
The behavior of the functions would be identical
User code that calls these functions wouldn't need any modifications

Additional information

Modernizes the code base. Compilers will optimize these the same, but coding standards favor using C++ cast in C++ code.