Recent advances on IMF research
  Here I discuss recent work on brown dwarfs, massive stars and the IMF in
general. The stellar IMF can be well described by an invariant two-part power
law in present-day star-formation events within the Local Group of galaxies. It
is nearly identical in shape to the pre-stellar core mass function. The
majority of brown dwarfs follow a separate IMF. Evidence from globular clusters
and ultra-compact dwarf galaxies has emerged that IMFs may have been top heavy
depending on the star-formation rate density. The IGIMF then ranges from bottom
heavy at low galaxy-wide star formation rates to being top-heavy in
galaxy-scale star bursts.
