Prepare to use the latest version of numpy

[suhaibmujahid]

Currently, updating to the latest version of numpy causes some testes to fail. Fixing these breakages is necessary to make the dependency upgrade possible (see #3731).

[suhaibmujahid]

@marco-c based on the fix that you committed in issue #3774, can we consider that this issue has been resolved?

[marco-c]

Yes, sorry I had forgotten there was this issue open!