diff --git a/beacon_chain/types/src/chain_config.rs b/beacon_chain/types/src/chain_config.rs
index 49128b49f..7437bed47 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/types/src/chain_config.rs
+++ b/beacon_chain/types/src/chain_config.rs
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ impl ChainConfig {
     pub fn standard() -> Self {
         Self {
             cycle_length: 64,
-            deposit_size_gwei: 32 * 10^9,
+            deposit_size_gwei: 32 * (10^9),
             shard_count: 1024,
             min_committee_size: 128,
             max_validator_churn_quotient: 32,
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ impl ChainConfig {
 
 	    // shard_count / cycle_length > 0 otherwise validator delegation
 	    // will fail.
-	    if self.shard_count / self.cycle_length as u16 == 0  {
+	    if self.shard_count / u16::from(self.cycle_length) == 0  {
 		    return false;
 	    }
 
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ impl ChainConfig {
     pub fn super_fast_tests() -> Self {
         Self {
             cycle_length: 2,
-            deposit_size_gwei: 32 * 10^9,
+            deposit_size_gwei: 32 * (10^9),
             shard_count: 2,
             min_committee_size: 2,
             max_validator_churn_quotient: 32,
diff --git a/beacon_chain/types/src/special_record.rs b/beacon_chain/types/src/special_record.rs
index 9189728df..186e449b1 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/types/src/special_record.rs
+++ b/beacon_chain/types/src/special_record.rs
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ impl SpecialRecord {
     /// Match `self.kind` to a `SpecialRecordKind`.
     ///
     /// Returns `None` if `self.kind` is an unknown value.
-    fn resolve_kind(&self) -> Option<SpecialRecordKind> {
+    pub fn resolve_kind(&self) -> Option<SpecialRecordKind> {
         match self.kind {
             x if x == SpecialRecordKind::Logout as u8
                 => Some(SpecialRecordKind::Logout),
diff --git a/beacon_chain/utils/ssz_helpers/src/ssz_beacon_block.rs b/beacon_chain/utils/ssz_helpers/src/ssz_beacon_block.rs
index 3066f5679..d466d3abc 100644
--- a/beacon_chain/utils/ssz_helpers/src/ssz_beacon_block.rs
+++ b/beacon_chain/utils/ssz_helpers/src/ssz_beacon_block.rs
@@ -127,6 +127,7 @@ impl<'a> SszBeaconBlock<'a> {
     }
 
     pub fn len(&self) -> usize { self.ssz.len() }
+    pub fn is_empty(&self) -> bool { self.ssz.is_empty() }
 
     /// Return the canonical hash for this block.
     pub fn block_hash(&self) -> Vec<u8> {