Already in 1997, the topics included in this meeting had been enlarged to include all different phases and phase transitions relevant on laboratory scales or in cosmology. The '98 meeting followed this trend, and there was a balanced combination of the physics associated with both strong and electroweak interactions (and beyond). The main motivation continues to be the understanding of the standard model in “extreme” situations, particularly relevant on the cosmological scale. Most contributions were in one way or another concerned with the finite-temperature aspects of strong and...