  The quasiparticles of the high-T_c cuprates are found to consist of:
polaron-like "stripons" carrying charge, and associated primarily with large-U
orbitals in stripe-like inhomogeneities; "quasielectrons" carrying charge and
spin, and associated with hybridized small-U and large-U orbitals; and
"svivons" carrying spin and lattice distortion. It is shown that this
electronic structure leads to the systematic behavior of spectroscopic and
transport properties of the cuprates. High-T_c pairing results from transitions
between pair states of stripons and quasielectrons through the exchange of
svivons. The cuprates fall in the regime of crossover between BCS and
preformed-pairs Bose-Einstein condensation behaviors.
