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We present our new scheme for the classification of radial stellar surface brightness profiles for disk galaxies. We summarize the current theoretical attempts to understand their origin and give an example of an application by comparing local galaxies with their counterparts at high redshift (z approximate to 1).

We present a detailed study of stellar line indices along the bar region for a sample of six early-type galaxies. We find positive gradients within the bar region in the metal indices in four of the six galaxies, and opposite trends in the other two. These latter two galaxies are classified as SAB and they present exponential bar light profiles. For all the galaxies we find a positive gradient in the Balmer indices. There is a clear correlation between the position of morphological features inside the bar region with changes in the slope and value of the indices that indicate, using stellar population analysis, changes in the stellar population, changing radially to younger and more metal rich populations for all the galaxies except for those two with exponential profiles.

Historically, galactic bulges are thought to be elliptical galaxy-like objects sitting in the middle of a generally larger disk. There are, however, more and more claims that some bulges are much more similar to disks. John Kormendy has named these pseudo-bulges. In this paper I discuss some recent integral field spectroscopy of the SAURON collaboration on a sample of 24 Sa and Sab galaxies. Using their two-dimensional maps of the stellar velocity, velocity dispersion, and absorption line strength, it is now much easier to understand the nature of nearby galactic bulges. I review several aspects of bulges, namely the surface photometry, stellar kinematics, stellar populations, the presence of interstellar matter, and their behavior in the fundamental plane of early-type galaxies.

A significant fraction of nearby galaxies contain nuclei with intermediate LINER/H II properties, but the physical nature of these objects remains largely unknown. In order to ascertain the origin of the nuclear activity, we have embarked on a study of a sample of these "transition" sources. In this first part, we present the results of our high-resolution radio observations. These show that about 25% of the transition nuclei display clear AGN characteristics: a compact, flat-spectrum, high-brightness-temperature radio core.